Author Topic: active vs passive crossovers  (Read 1687 times)

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Offline STU84W

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active vs passive crossovers
« on: Dec 31, 2005, 09:55AM »
now i've read articles, but they don't really tell me much except that passive crossovers are inferior to active crossovers.

is this true?

and if i have a set of splits with a passive crossover setup, and use them with active crossovers (sourced elsewhere), will it be better?
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Offline JIMB0

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Re: active vs passive crossovers
« Reply #1 on: Dec 31, 2005, 11:56AM »
Active crossovers split the singnal into high and low as it comes out of the cd player and sends both through different amplifiers. Passive spilts the signal after it has been amplified.

If you run a subwoofer in your car chances are the amplifier uses a active x-over. It sends the high freq. to the normal speakers and low freq. to the sub.

Offline Rake

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Re: active vs passive crossovers
« Reply #2 on: Dec 31, 2005, 05:11PM »
If you run a subwoofer in your car chances are the amplifier uses a active x-over. It sends the high freq. to the normal speakers and low freq. to the sub.

I guess this would be true if you use subwoofer outputs on your headunit? And Passive would be found moreso with midrange + tweeter combo's... Though I don't know anything

Offline JIMB0

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Re: active vs passive crossovers
« Reply #3 on: Jan 1, 2006, 11:11AM »
The best form of active x-over is where the signal is split digitally at the cd player and then sent to individual amps.

Offline Jono

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Re: active vs passive crossovers
« Reply #4 on: Jan 1, 2006, 11:28PM »
Don't bother doing anything with your crossovers on your splits. The crossovers that come with the splits are designed specifically for those speakers and as such should sound pretty good.

It simply isn't worth converting them to active crossovers.
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Offline STU84W

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Re: active vs passive crossovers
« Reply #5 on: Jan 2, 2006, 12:22AM »
ah, k. thanks guys, they will remain untouched :)
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