Active mids and highs

[Jerry G. Peraza]

What is everyones preference when it comes to purchasing their mids and highs for an active set up? Do you all buy your components seperately or by the set with the crossovers? I feel like there is a waste with the component set I own since I'm running an active set up and im not using the passive crossovers which im sure constitute at least 1/3 of the price lol

[Bmike]

I started off with a comp set, and as time went on, I went active with the same comp set, feeling like it wasn't enough I then stepped up to some super tweets, they are very loud and more than I expected but with some tuning I have matched them up with my mids and they sound great. I also stepped up my mids , after some tuning I honestly have to say to me personally they sound way better than anything I have had in the past, some mtx comps and skar comps. I believe I have more than enough power left if needed to keep up with more bass if needed. so to answer your question I now prefer to buy my mids and highs separate. just my opinion others will have their own.

[mrd6]

Well...I'll throw out my thoughts and experience on this at least.

Crossovers generally wont be 1/3 the price in most sets (should be less) so you can feel better about that at least! Haha but, i've done both, order seperate drivers as well as go with a component set to run them both active. Active always has a better sound than passive but I really dont have a preference for component sets or individual drivers. It just comes down to what you want to run. More often then not, if the speakers are sold as a component set, you cant buy them by themselves so you just have to deal with the bit of loss.

The advantage of buying a set is that the tweets and mids should already work well together. If buying individual drivers you need to know what you are doing so that the drivers you buy sound good paired together, have a good common crossover point, reasonably similar efficiency, etc. But, if you know what you are doing, the a la cart speaker route can often get you better sound for the price.

[bcbrassard]

All depends on what your looking for in your system. I run T2s & T3s active and have no problem putting the crossovers aside for better sound in my opinion.

[mrd6]

^Plus, you never know when those crossovers may come in handy in another future project. I've used the crossovers from my PRS comp set for a pair of HT towers I built, worked great!

[Jerry G. Peraza]

Great insights! At the time I have the passives just put away but I thought I would sell them or something. I agree 100% that there is definite better quality in an active set up. So I don't plan to go back to passive (although I've heard some sets that if money is no object there is a nice way to go too lol). I just felt efficiecy was lost and I would actually hear a form of distortion with them. But then I just started calmoring over the passives not being used, every dollar counts! haha

thanks for your opinion guys. I think ill just keep buying the component sets to run active for SQ purposes as @mrd6 stated that they are designed to work with one another. In an spl set up some super tweeters would make sense i guess.

Btw my assumption about the crossovers being 1/3 the price is because compared to how some components look in comparsion to their coaxial couter parts , the woofer material is usually the same... so why the upcharge? Sometimes 2 to 3x more. Especially with RF sets.