Tweeters with which L-Pad attenuator?

[Alex Musak]

This is on a motorcycle so my wiring and speakers are somewhat limited. I'm running a set of DD VO 6.5's and Memphis Bullet horns together off of the front channel of an Arc 600.4. The DD's can get plenty loud, but the horns start to get too harsh. I'd like to find a way to reducing some sound from the horns, but still get the most out of the DD 6.5's. Was thinking about some L-Pad attenuators but not sure which ones or if there's a better idea out there.

1. Parts Express has 8ohm L-pads. Both speakers are 4ohm. Any issues....will my overall impedance go up and output from the amp go down?

2. They have 15w, 50w, 100w L-Pads. Not sure which ones would be best here. Tweeters are 100w RMS, amp pushes 150w to both speakers.

[Bump4life]

you should be looking at the 100w version if you want to go to an l-pad. thats is only part of the passive crossover network. I think you would benefit by just using a passive crossover on them if they do not already have one?

Human ears are most sensitive around 2k HZ. if you cross the horns higher it may reduce the peak in that range.

Another thing, from my experience, the dd vo 6.5s sound harsh without proper tuning. i generally bandpassed mine from 150hz - 1800 hz with 18 db per octave slopes. that toned down their natural pa harshness. it sound slike you may just have bad tuning which cna be solved by properly setting crossovers.

[Alex Musak]

You are probably correct. Right now I have just have them crossed at the amp at 110hz, and the tweeters with the capacitor they came with.

The other side to this, is they are on a motorcycle, not a car, where SQ goes out the window once you start moving.

If I got the crossover route, any brands you recommend? I ain't got a clue!

[Bump4life]

You are probably correct. Right now I have just have them crossed at the amp at 110hz, and the tweeters with the capacitor they came with.

The other side to this, is they are on a motorcycle, not a car, where SQ goes out the window once you start moving.

If I got the crossover route, any brands you recommend? I ain't got a clue!

crossovers you can make yourself.

http://ccs.exl.info/cust_cr.html

this is a good site for building basic 6db and 12 db per octave passive crossovers. They do the math for you

The only way to tune passively the way you want is going to be to build custom.

If you buy a premade one, they are generally at the standard frequencies of 3-4k and up for tweets and around 80-120 for mids. since you are using the high pass on the amp you would need to make a low pass at around 1800 for the woofer and a high pass for the tweeter around 2k. the problem with passive stuff is you cant try before you buy gotta build it, and plug it in and see. with active crossovers they are ususally adjustable and you can tune it in how you like. before wasting money on passive solutions id try to figure out an active crossover solution.

what head unit are you running off of?

[Alex Musak]

That makes tons of sense. Never got this in-depth with my audio builds on a bike. It was mostly an amp or two, x-over set at the amp depending on speaker and then adjust radio EQ. The driver and horn combo is great for volume on a bike....but if could get this dialed in, it would sound fantastic. I had set of crossovers from a set of JL C5-650's and tried them last night. The DD 6.5 sounded like crap.

I'm using a kenwood 998.

[Bump4life]

That makes tons of sense. Never got this in-depth with my audio builds on a bike. It was mostly an amp or two, x-over set at the amp depending on speaker and then adjust radio EQ. The driver and horn combo is great for volume on a bike....but if could get this dialed in, it would sound fantastic. I had set of crossovers from a set of JL C5-650's and tried them last night. The DD 6.5 sounded like crap.

I'm using a kenwood 998.

i am not familiar with that head unit, does it have the ability to run an active setup? if not, look into the pioneer 80prs. it can run an active setup and would work well for your bike.

but i am assuming you are running a sub on rear 2 chanels of your amp bridged?