Wiring

Discussion in 'General Car Audio Discussions' started by Jamesr316, Oct 29, 2004.

  1. Jamesr316

    Jamesr316 Full Member

    Im not sure what ^^^ that says, but could you answer me this: Will I notice a performance increase in my set if I do use all channels of my amp to power them instead of just 2?
     
  2. smgreen20

    smgreen20 Full Member

    It depends on YOUR EARS. I didn't notice all that much, but I did notice that the sudleties in a recording (Tori Amos mostly) are more pronounced.
     
  3. Jamesr316

    Jamesr316 Full Member

    Well, if i have the ability to bi-amp, why not? I have 2 other channels not even being used...

    I am kind of confused, the tab pieces are on the input, not the output. smgreen20, I didn't quite understand..if i bi-amp, i remove the tabbed inputs and run all 4 channels to them correct?
     
  4. Poseur

    Poseur Full Member

    ah HA! all these years of my friends making fun of me for listening to "dyke music" others do exist....

    James> so you pull out the "U" shaped tabs and then run the fornt channels of your amp to the tweeter input and the rears to the mid input, or the other way around. You're essentially not putting any mroe power to anything, as they'll still each only be getting 75w, but being able to independantly set gains is the big deal. it's kind of like adding an infinately variable tweeter attenuater (possibly a good thing on notoriously harsh quarts) Eventually, you can ditch the passive crossovers alltogether, and run an active crossover inline before your amp. This will give you the added bous of variable crossover frequencies/slopes.
     
  5. Jamesr316

    Jamesr316 Full Member

    Ok, understand now.

    So is that how the people that have done this longer do it? Do they buy a comp set and ditch the x-over to use an active one, or do they just buy the individual components and an active x-over.
     
  6. ASM

    ASM Full Member




    I bought my component set as a set like you did then I sold the xovers. It was cheaper that way for me. I run everything active.
     
  7. Poseur

    Poseur Full Member

    IT alldepeds. Some ppl sweat by actives, some swear by passives. A well constructed passive is nothing bad, and sometiems beneficial, but ultimately fixed, and not really adjustable. Active crossover is jsut that, you've got infinate tunability. which is sometiems nice, and sometimes jsut more of a pain. Actives are generally designed for optimum performance for the specific speakers tehy go with, so again, you're likely not missing much. Part of the biggest appeal of actives is if you start mixing/matching drivers adn tweeters, etc.
     
  8. Jamesr316

    Jamesr316 Full Member

    You are referring to external activ x-overs right? Not ones built into the amps...
     
  9. sandt38

    sandt38 Full Member

    I like passives, and I like to bi-amp if I can.

    The subtleties mentioned by smgreen20 are called dynamics, and they DO benefit from bi-amping. It is not really the ability to be able to set gains seperately that is important, it is the fact that the power durring a transient attack is handled by multiple channels. Basically, it reduces the additional recovery time of the amplifiers capacitance durring these transitions. Also, bi-wire will make a differance (at least in HT, I haven't tried it in a car before), but it isn't as dramatic as bi-amping.

    I prefer passives (the little plastic case you have pictured above is a passive) to actives. The crossover is really the voice of the system. To properly impliment a fully active system, you need entirely too much test equipment, a golden ear, and a set of speakers that have a voice compliment and that you like butt naked, without crossover manipulation. In a custom 3 way set, along the lines of a store bought (complete set I mean) 2 way, plus a seperate midbass, actives are great. Really only because the midwoofer will only be required to recreate a tiny portion of it's useable range, and it should remain natrually fairly linear, with regaurds to output and dynamic impedance. Then leave the passives to do their duty with the broad spectrum required by the midrange and tweeter.
     
  10. Jamesr316

    Jamesr316 Full Member

    Excellent Info guys. However, I just got back from the audio shop..They said the speakers I bought are bad and that is why they sound horrable. The guy insists they worked when he had them. I got them off ebay, the auction described brand new, hooked up to test...They appeared to be brand new as everything was without wear or fingerprints, all plastics and manuals were there..

    Anyhow he swears he hooked them up and they worked fine. Im trying to see if he will buy me another pair and I can send these back... I wish I knew an MB Quart dealer who could trade me & send these back to the factory :wink wink: