What does running active mean?

[fritosaregood]

i should have worded it differently. I should have said that it would be more efficient to run active.

and running active makes it easier to adjust time delay, phase, and other such things. There is far more flexibility.

I see it as passive is more efficient. if you have a 2 channel amp 100watts x2 you can power 2 tweeters and 2 mids by first amplifying the power, then sending in to a two way crossover that splits the signal and sends 100 watts to the tweeter and 100 watts to the mid with just one channel., Active however would require a 4 channel 100x4 amp.

because of this i originally chose to do a passive setup, but am now switchin to active so i can adjust crossover points

[siucsaluki11]

I see it as passive is more efficient. if you have a 2 channel amp 100watts x2 you can power 2 tweeters and 2 mids by first amplifying the power, then sending in to a two way crossover that splits the signal and sends 100 watts to the tweeter and 100 watts to the mid with just one channel., Active however would require a 4 channel 100x4 amp.

because of this i originally chose to do a passive setup, but am now switchin to active so i can adjust crossover points

No, 100/2 =50 So you would send 50 to each driver in said setup. The same can be done with an amp that does 50x4. While the impedance doesnt change even though the woofer and tweeter are both 4 ohms and the reading at the amp is 4 ohms. The 100w you supplied isnt magically amplified into 200w by the xover. Now, for what you want, to give 100w to each tweet and mid, you would need an amp that puts out 200 x 2 at 4 ohms or 100 x 4 at 4 ohms.

EDIT: Please feel free to correct me if im wrong, but i think im pretty right on this one.

Edited September 29, 2009 by siucsaluki11

[fritosaregood]

No, 100/2 =50 So you would send 50 to each driver in said setup. The same can be done with an amp that does 50x4. While the impedance doesnt change even though the woofer and tweeter are both 4 ohms and the reading at the amp is 4 ohms. The 100w you supplied isnt magically amplified into 200w by the xover. Now, for what you want, to give 100w to each tweet and mid, you would need an amp that puts out 200 x 2 at 4 ohms or 100 x 4 at 4 ohms.

EDIT: Please feel free to correct me if im wrong, but i think im pretty right on this one.

I dont think that is correct, The power does not have to split because your still sending 100 watts to each frequency. Its the frequencies that are getting separated.

Atleast this is how ive been told before

[siucsaluki11]

you may be right, just when i think about it it seems it should split the power between the two. I wish someone who knew more about xovers would chime in.

[fritosaregood]

you may be right, just when i think about it it seems it should split the power between the two. I wish someone who knew more about xovers would chime in.

It would have to be how it works, or it would change the ohm loads too. right?

[siucsaluki11]

Idk, im trying to think how either way would work. Ive always wondered how it works out that it doesnt change the ohm loads, never thought of it like that. Hmmm.....

[siucsaluki11]

Its been a while since ive really looked at a circuit diagram, but im thinking no, it splits it going off the schematic here, but i could be wrong. Like i said, i havent read wiring diagrams in a while.

diagram i looked at

[Cr@sh]

In a passive network the components of the passive network bring the load to 4 or 8 or whatever depending on how it's designed. If you have two four ohm speakers (Tweet/Midrange) and you have a two way passive crossover for them, then depending on the components themselves (Value's of the components)would determine how much power each speaker gets but the load the amp would see would still be 4 or 8 or whatever you designed it for. Read this: http://www.termpro.com/articles/xover2.html

[Boon]

Active means you can time align each driver separately. Which you can't do with passive unless you tri-amp but then you need just as many channels of amplification.

Active is more efficient, and I believe it's +3db over passive.

[Cr@sh]

Active means you can time align each driver separately. Which you can't do with passive unless you tri-amp but then you need just as many channels of amplification.

Active is more efficient, and I believe it's +3db over passive.

Not all electronic crossovers can do time alignment, as for passive's not being able to it's matter of placement, and +3db???

Edited September 30, 2009 by Cr@sh