# Active Crossover Unit Vs. Amp Built-In Crossover?



## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

I am trying to map out my new system as I move the pieces from my old vehicle to my new, I was running passive crossovers for my front stage and one of them blew on me. So I am going to add mid-bass drivers to the stage (and another amp for them) but signal processing is new crucial. 

My front stage are Focal KRX2 6.5s (70Hz-20KHz) the amp I have is a Zapco C2K-2.5X four channel amp I have been running bridged in stereo with the Focal passive crossovers. I now want to run it in four channel mode so that my tweeters are amped separately from my door speakers...I am not sure yet if the C2K-2.5X is capable of high-pass but the amp is 50W x4 RMS. I hope 50W RMS is enough for the 6.5" door speakers since they were probably consuming more of my wattage than the tweeters in the passive setup. 

I have 6.5" Tang-band drivers I plan to run as midbass, and a JBL JX250/1 amp to drive them. It is a mono sub amp so the midbass will not be running in stereo mode with my door speakers but I do not think that will be a big deal. However the built-in crossover is probably not going to do what I need it to (filter freq. is 50-200Hz) I can set it to 200Hz however that will not cut out anything below 90Hz just above 200Hz right? I think this is where I am going to be forced to buy a stand alone crossover unit that has high and low thresholds right?


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

if your being "forced" to get a standalone unit, id just spring for a full dsp


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## kyheng (Jan 31, 2007)

Most of the amps have limited crossover points unless you are getting more expensive type.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

If your head unit has a built in high pass filter, you could use its high pass at 70hz, and the amps low pass at 200hz. That would give you a bandpass of 70hz to 200hz.


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## gstokes (Apr 20, 2014)

If the amplifier in question has the required crossovers and filters for your application there is no real benefit to using an additional active crossover.. 

The more components you install in the signal path the greater the chance of noise entering the system, if you don't need don't use it..


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

gstokes said:


> If the amplifier in question has the required crossovers and filters for your application there is no real benefit to using an additional active crossover..
> 
> The more components you install in the signal path the greater the chance of noise entering the system, if you don't need don't use it..


This is true, but i don't think it's what the OP was getting at. I think he is trying to get a bandpass frequency for his midbass, and the only way he is going to be able to do it is by adding another electronic crossover, a full-out DSP(probably alot more than he really is aiming for), or crossing his fingers and hoping his headunit has a crossover built in that is either adjustable or luckily has the frequency he is looking for as a fixed point in his head units settings.

From what i gather, he wants to use his 250/1 subwoofer amp for midbass and doesn't mind it not being in stereo. It should work. For example, say your trying to get your midbass to play from 60hz to 200hz, you would set the lowpass frequency on the amp at 200hz, which would send 200hz and down to your midbass. Now the next step is to only have from 60hz and up to 200hz play. So you would either need an external electronic crossover and set the highpass to 60hz, or hopefully your headunit has built-in highpass crossovers(most headunits do nowadays) and set its highpass crossover to 60hz or whatever frequency it may have as its fixed highpass frequency(most headunits have selectable 80hz,100hz and 120hz points, while some higher end units have completely adjustable points; like my Alpine CDA-7998; and some have selectable points down to as low as 50hz; an old Rockford RAV-DVD1 I used to own did as well as my Pioneer DEH-P880PRS). Check your head unit out first, before you introduce another signal processor into the path, it could very well have exactly what your needing built-in. Good luck.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

milburyl is correct with his assessment, here is the down side I forgot to mention. I use a netbook instead of a HU, with an external USB sound output device that stays mounted to my vehicle where the USB can be unplugged and the netbook can be removed. I interface with my netbook using a small touch screen mounted on my dash which uses HDMI for the video and USB for the touch sensor input. 

Basically, my signal source is a full-range stereo lead. I am all set with my sub-amp, I think the C2K-2.5X has a full high/low crossover for each channel so I will verify that soon...now as stated my 250/1-amp for my midbass only has a low-pass that I can set to 200Hz but it does not have a high-pass option. IF they make a stand alone highpass single channel active crossover that would be great but I think I may be out of luck. If I add even a cheap DSP it will have several channels that I would not even be using or need...but if I did add a DSP unit even a cheap one, I might as well use it and set my amps to - full range? Right? 

Just to clarify why I am adding the midbass, the KRX2 6.5 set kicks ass it really does and I applaud Focal for that but I feel it has even greater dB potential if I am able to filter out more of the low fq from the 6.5" drivers.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Have you considered using passive highpass filters on your midbass? Build your own. Google how to build them and order the capacitors you'll need to do it. They would be something like the "bass-blocker" caps that people use to keep bass out of their coaxial speakers when they are using a sub.
Maybe even buy yourself a head-unit that has a USB input and can play music and video files.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

That is something I have considered and may end up doing once I verify that is the only thing missing from my signal processing. 

I do not want a USB HU because they are limited to MP3 files and my standard of music is FLAC or WAV if I have the space for it. Seems like HU's cap out at 256kbps


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Just to clarify why I am adding the midbass said:


> Your actually going backwards in this approach. If your bridging your amp to the Focals now, un-bridging is going to cut the power in half and not be nowhere near as loud (more DB's as you put it).
> Keep your amp bridged. Keep using the supplied passive xovers. Only set the highpass filter on the amp at about 70 or 80hz where it goes into the passive xovers and use your 250/1 on a pair of 8" subs in a sealed box with the lowpass filter set a little higher than a conventional sub setup. Say around 150hz for lowpass (2 8" subs sealed will give you all kinds of punchy, mid to low midbass sound).


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

milburyl said:


> Your actually going backwards in this approach. If your bridging your amp to the Focals now, un-bridging is going to cut the power in half and not be nowhere near as loud (more DB's as you put it).
> Keep your amp bridged. Keep using the supplied passive xovers. Only set the highpass filter on the amp at about 70 or 80hz where it goes into the passive xovers and use your 250/1 on a pair of 8" subs in a sealed box with the lowpass filter set a little higher than a conventional sub setup. Say around 150hz for lowpass (2 8" subs sealed will give you all kinds of punchy, mid to low midbass sound).


so have mids and sub play 80-150? bad idea. cross them at the same point


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

Your changing this too much, I said my passive crossovers are dead already or at least one of them. Un-bridging them means 50w RMS to my 6.5" drivers and 50w RMS to my tweeters. 

I do not want 8" subs I have no room for them....6.5" is my maximum with space for a single 10" or 12" sub.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> That is something I have considered and may end up doing once I verify that is the only thing missing from my signal processing.
> 
> I do not want a USB HU because they are limited to MP3 files and my standard of music is FLAC or WAV if I have the space for it. Seems like HU's cap out at 256kbps


Get a HU that has RCA inputs and run your Netbook into it. Or better yet, use an Android device instead of the Netbook.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

lol, no. I have my reasons for not wanting a HU.

Android? :laugh:


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> Your changing this too much, I said my passive crossovers are dead already or at least one of them. Un-bridging them means 50w RMS to my 6.5" drivers and 50w RMS to my tweeters.
> 
> I do not want 8" subs I have no room for them....6.5" is my maximum with space for a single 10" or 12" sub.


Ah. I missed the part about the passive xovers being dead. Sorry. 
The homemade "bass-blocker" passive xover is probably the best bet then.
Personally, I'd get a headunit. Sony makes a nice HU that uses their Android phone as the interface. It has no screen or buttons, you just dock a Sony Xperia Android phone sideways on the front of it. Android can play any file type you throw at it. Video or music.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

milburyl said:


> Your actually going backwards in this approach. If your bridging your amp to the Focals now, un-bridging is going to cut the power in half and not be nowhere near as loud (more DB's as you put it).
> Keep your amp bridged.


You have me thinking more on this now, I was never able to use the maximum potential of the system literally my gain on the amp is set to 0 and I still can not turn it up all the way most of the time. 

With that being said, the 6.5" driver SHOULD use way more than a tweeter when bridged right? They rate the "kit" at 100w RMS for "each side" but I am wondering how that division was made.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Maybe get another smaller inexpensive amp to power your tweeters, and keep your Zapco amp bridged to the midranges. Or maybe get another 2 channel amp and another set of crossovers (or repair your current ones). Use the current Zapco bridged to your midbass and use the new amp to power the mids n tweets through the passive xovers. 
I still believe your best off with a head unit. You don't have any idea of what quality the signal coming out of the Netbook is. I guarantee that it's not a high quality signal with high voltage. If nothing else, you would be best served by feeding the signal from the Netbook into an external xover unit or dsp to at least boost the voltage and clean up the signal. Your wanting the best possible quality by using FLAC files, yet your using a subpar signal coming out of the Netbook. It's defeating the purpose of the higher than MP3 quality files your using. 
Furthermore, just about every current headunit that will play MP3'S will play 320kb MP3'S and you would be hard pressed to hear the difference between them and FLAC.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Sony XSP-N1BT CD receiver at Crutchfield.com

I think this is right up your ally.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

Forget about the HU just completely forget about it, you will not talk me into it. 

Once again, your not readings things....I am using a USB sound output device not the netbooks on-board sound hardware....replying is getting painful dude.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> Forget about the HU just completely forget about it, you will not talk me into it.
> 
> Once again, your not readings things....I am using a USB sound output device not the netbooks on-board sound hardware....replying is getting painful dude.


Only trying to help dude. Even if your using a "USB" output device, I still have my doubts as to the quality of the signal it puts out. I don't know why your so "against" a head unit. But ok, you don't want a head unit. That leaves it down to either a DSP or external xover. And the only question now is, how much do you want to spend? A DSP is gonna cost more than an external xover.

Just for ****s n giggles, what is the brand, make and model and specs of the USB output device? 
Have you looked to see if there are any software xovers that you could use?


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

milburyl said:


> Only trying to help dude. Even if your using a "USB" output device, I still have my doubts as to the quality of the signal it puts out. I don't know why your so "against" a head unit. But ok, you don't want a head unit. That leaves it down to either a DSP or external xover. And the only question now is, how much do you want to spend? A DSP is gonna cost more than an external xover.
> 
> Just for ****s n giggles, what is the brand, make and model and specs of the USB output device?
> Have you looked to see if there are any software xovers that you could use?


people use the USB dac's all the time. theyre fine


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

And I can do one more thing to try to help you out. If you want an external xover, I happen to have one that i would sell you for $25 plus shipping. I live in Canada, but I'm close to the border of Maine. I can drive to Maine and ship from there to save on shipping costs. It's a 3 way electronic xover by American Bass. It's fully adjustable and even has a remote bass knob (which is rare for external xovers-this is the only one I've seen with one) and has bass EQ to set your center frequency and the width (much like an Epicenter ), plus it's outputs are high voltage (I think they are 8 or 9 volts).

Don't know if I'm allowed to offer anything for sale like this, mods correct me if I'm not. But I do have it posted in the classifieds(quite a while ago though).


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

Audioengine D1, it is not the best unit @ 2 volts but it was a starting place. 

I will take you up on your offer, I think I can make that work. I'm just not sure how I would set the front up without 4 channels. I would need to have passive crossovers for my tweeters to use this and one of mine is shot (it is a Focal passive).

I will look at my Zapco amp, possibly I can just not use the front channel of your DSP if my C2K-2.5X handles highpass.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Hey. If you want, I also have a set of new CDT EX-480 upstage xovers I can sell you for $25 as well.
http://www.amazon.com/CDT-Audio-EX-480-Order-Crossover/dp/B0030JJDYW

If you use these, you have the future ability to add upstage tweeters(usually on top of a-pillars). With these, and the electronic xover, I'd recommend to run your mids n tweets off these and 2 channels of your amp, and those two channels being fed by the front of the electronic xover set to 200hz highpass. (Don't use the xover in the amp for these channels). Next, feed the other 2 channels from the rear output of the electronic xover with the highpass set to 70hz, and the lowpass on the amp set to 200hz and run your midbass off those 2 channels.
Next, feed the 250/1 amp with the subwoofer output of the electronic xover with its lowpass at 70-80hz range and not use the xover in that amp, but use its subsonic filter if it has one and run your sub off that amp. You are going to need 2 pairs of y-splitters to split your single RCA's from your DAC to feed all 3 inputs of the electronic xover. This setup will give you the best SQ and best overall performance of your system.




























Those CDT xovers are of really high quality. The xovers alone cost as much as alot of entire component systems (mids,tweets xovers).


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

I am worried about popping one of these passive crossovers, my KRX2 component set was $1,600 I would hope the passive Focal crossovers are at least the same grade as these CDTs?

The 250/1 as far as I know does not allow me to disable the crossover all I can do is crank it all the way up/open @ 200Hz which leaves redundant signal processing. 

I think now is the time to step up with a DSP, I am moving everything to a new vehicle very soon so it would not be a big deal. 

I think my Zapco C2K-2.5X has dual internal crossovers, that was a $1,500 - 400W amp. I just need to make sure it has a range for tweeters and it will save me from having to use any passive boxes. However you do seem set on keeping the amp bridged, yet I may not loose any dB @ 2V the amp allows up to a 16V input. Maybe I am wrong but I would rather use a line-driver between the DAC and amp, plus use the internal crossovers.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Whatever way you want to do it. Offer is there. A DSP is always a good idea. There are many available on the market. Why don't you look into the Zapco symbalink stuff. Zapco makes great stuff. I checked out your amp too. Its a very nice amp. I'm just totally blown away by the fact that it didn't offer a bandpass xover for 2 channels. They really push their DSP on you (expensive, but very robust and flexible). Hope you get something figured out that suits your liking.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

I looked my amp over today well, and I will not be able to take advantage of the built-in crossover. It allows me to choose which range I want to use, then I have control within that range. The two ranges are 44Hz-480Hz & 475Hz-5.2KHz, 475Hz is not low enough to mate with my mid-bass @ 200Hz (would leave a 275Hz window). 

I will be forced to run this Zapco amp in "FULL" setting to bypass the crossovers. 

I need a DSP, no way around this imo.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> I looked my amp over today well, and I will not be able to take advantage of the built-in crossover. It allows me to choose which range I want to use, then I have control within that range. The two ranges are 44Hz-480Hz & 475Hz-5.2KHz, 475Hz is not low enough to mate with my mid-bass @ 200Hz (would leave a 275Hz window).
> 
> I will be forced to run this Zapco amp in "FULL" setting to bypass the crossovers.
> 
> I need a DSP, no way around this imo.


Sure you will be able too. You can set it at 200hz. 200hz is attained by leaving your xover frequencies button out. Set the switch on LOW, then turn the dial to get to where 200hz is. 200 is in between 44 and 480 and is in between the 3oclock and 4oclock position approximately. (Now you face palm yourself and say "duh").

.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

Yes I think you have got me stumped now haha, hmm so I am confused what the difference is between the push button and the toggle switch, they both seem to do the same thing; switch between high range or low range? 

I also am confused as to how the threshold works, if I set it to 200Hz is this a cutoff point or does it use this as a center point with a "window" range to either side?


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> Yes I think you have got me stumped now haha, hmm so I am confused what the difference is between the push button and the toggle switch, they both seem to do the same thing; switch between high range or low range?
> 
> I also am confused as to how the threshold works, if I set it to 200Hz is this a cutoff point or does it use this as a center point with a "window" range to either side?


The push button switches between 44hz-480hz or 475hz-5.2khz. You understand that 5.2khz is the same as 5200hz right? 
The toggle is to set your xover to either highpass or lowpass.

Now, when you leave the button out, and turn the frequency to 200hz, and you set the toggle to LOW, it will pass the frequencies from 200hz and down. If you set the toggle to HIGH, it will pass the frequencies from 200hz and up.

And where the external crossover would come in for your midbass is you'd set the amp with button out, turn dial to 200hz (approximately the 3:30 clock position) and set the toggle switch to LOW. Now, you'd set the external xover to HIGH and turn it to 70hz position. This would send the frequencies from 70hz and above to the midbass, but that would also include frequencies all the way up to 20khz (20000hz), so this is where the amps xover comes in because it stops the frequencies above 200hz, and only lets from 200hz and down to the midbass. So in the end, your midbass is seeing only the frequencies between 70hz and 200hz.

Just another quick question here. Do you understand which frequencies are which, and what the human hearing range is? And do you understand how 1khz is 1000hz? Kinda like 1000 meters is 1 kilometer? If not, i can give you a brief tutorial. Anyone into audio should know and understand sound and frequencies and even db's.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

Thank you. Well for one I am not using this amp for my midbass, that amp just has the lowpass built-in for up to 200Hz. 

Yes I understand frequency ranges, what I do not understand are sensitivity and crossover slopes. 

I looked into spec sheets further, my tweeters are TN53K's which are 15W RMS and 100W peak. I could not find the specs on just my 6.5" driver though, I am going to try to run them without the passive crossovers. However that means if I use the built-in crossover in my Zapco I would be sending something like 480Hz-bottoming out and I need to cap them at 200Hz which is not possible with my amp alone. I can run the tweeters no problem because I do not need to cap those using a high pass on the other channel. 

Is 200Hz even going to be high enough for midbass? It still cuts out 130Hz window from my 6.5" Focals so they do not have to work as hard. If I did not need a high-pass for my Focal drivers I would go the route of a custom passive crossover. 

These are the crossovers that came with my KRX2s the left one is the one that does not work I think it is a poor connection in the switch. Help me understand these settings please, the switch on the right just steps my tweeters dB/volume down I know how that works, the switch on the left controls my mid driver (Full/12dB-octave) which is unfiltered or low-pass @ 12dB/octave but I do not understand what they mean by a 12dB octave....which frequency are they cutting it at? The kit says it handles down to 70Hz so it must cut it somewhere down to 70Hz? If I use the Full selling I think it allows the highs to enter my mid drivers. There are other internal tweeter settings that do not matter if I am not using them anymore. 










After all this what it comes down it is I need a high-pass for my midbass (250/1) and a high-pass for my mids (Zapco) since my amp will allow me to cut the mid from 480Hz-down. I am super tight on room I wish I could get my hands on a unit with less channels but I may have to go with your offer, I would not use the subwoofer channel but I can put the first two channels to use because they have high-pass thresholds! Also I am not sure if you knew/know but the parallel toggle likely links all 3 input channels so you only need to use one set of RCA inputs to feed all 3 channels off what looks like the front-in.


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## bassfreak85 (Jul 26, 2009)

let me get this stright, you want to run the focal mids active and focal tweeters active and he tangbang 6.5s active? i wouldnt run the midbass mono its going to blur your sound stage.
honestly they have a few active networks you could use that are cheap and decent.
ASP-X4 - Zapco 2/3/4-Way Electronic Crossover
damn shame you have that badass amp but only 60 watts.
granted it will driver those mids and tweeters hard enough to be decenly loud. it will definitally driver hte tweeters. you need about 150x2 for the tangbangs. Id cross them around 70hz with a 24db octave slope up too about 200 and cross the focal mid from 200 to 2500 and the tweeters 2500 up.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

Yes and thank you for your input, I think I am starting to see the problem with the 50/60W RMS per channel. 

I wish my passive crossovers were variable, I have no idea where they cut my mids/tweets. I can not afford to spend that much on an active Focal crossover right now I may have some nice equipment but it was bought at a good time lol. It would be nice if I could find a variable/adjustable passive crossover, I could either modify my current passive crossovers or find another set that cuts my mids higher than 70Hz...I am going to look into a 3-way passive crossover then I can just use the tweeter/mid channels and ignore the midbass channel on the passive unit which would allow more RMS wattage to my mids and I could keep my amp bridged.

Another thought with keeping my Zapco amp bridged, and using my current passive crossovers, if I used an active crossover before it with a high-pass set to 200Hz those passive crossovers would work for me! It would go through the amp bridged, hit the passive crossovers which have the low-pass for the mid drivers. 

You really think driving my midbass (70-200Hz) in mono will blur it? I could always use the 250/1 for my sub I have not bought an amp for it yet, it may a bit under powered for it though; 175Wx1 @4Ohms. Its just an AudioBahn ABP121, 400W 4-Ohm RMS bandpass I am not pushing SPL I am after SQ. Then I could buy a stereo amp for the Tang-band, however they only require 50W RMS which is why I wanted to use the 250/1 I am not use were you got the 150W number from, they have a max handling of 100W.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

For your mids, you'd push the button in to get your lowpass for the mids up higher than 480hz. Pushing the crossover button in and out allows you to change the cutoff points. It doesn't mean the frequency is actually from 44hz to 480hz, it allows you to pick any frequency in between 44 and 480. When you pick the frequency you want in BETWEEN 44hz and 480hz, then the toggle switch between hi and low allows you to use the frequency you chose to pass all the frequencies below OR all the frequencies above the chosen frequency. 
I think your misunderstanding how that in and out button works. Again, it does not make the crossover go directly from 44hz to 480hz or directly from 475hz to 5.2khz, you turn your dial to chose ANY frequency in BETWEEN 44 and 480 or in between 475 and 5200hz.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

No I totally understand you, there is not enough range on the pot for it all so it breaks it up into two ranges. 

I sent you a PM, and I read some threads about midbass up to 200Hz having no noticeable difference between stereo and mono. 

I need both a low-pass and high-pass for my mids, which is why I now say combining you active DSP with my passive crossovers will give me the range I need. Right?


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

*Does this flow-chart make sense to everyone? I am really curious where the pre-set crossover points are set in the passive Focal crossovers. *


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> *Does this flow-chart make sense to everyone? I am really curious where the pre-set crossover points are set in the passive Focal crossovers. *


Looks about right, but you shouldn't need any midbass with those speakers. A good sub, crossed at 85hz lowpass , and cross your Focals at 85hz highpass, sound deaden your doors well and it should rock. And those Focals are 2ohm. The amp shouldn't be bridged to a 2ohm load. It's not a high current amp. That may be your problem to begin with. The amp is breaking down at high volume because it's pushing too low of an ohm load. If you run 2 channels of your amp to the Focals with the high pass at 150hz, and run the other 2 channels to your midbass (which I think is dumb since your adding Honda Civics to try to compliment a Mercedes ) I'd run 2 channels to the Focals, and at 2ohms, they are pulling more power anyway, then bridge the other 2 channels to a decent moderate range sub, with a high sensitivity rating. Lowpass the sub at 70hz, highpass the Focals at 70hz. Can run your whole system off the one amp.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Ditch the Tang Bands man. Like i said, your trying to compliment a Mercedes with a Honda Civic. Those Focals will rock. Deaden your doors properly with Dynamat, get a 10" decent sub. Highpass the Focals at 70hz with your amps xover and use the supplied passives. Lowpass the sub at 70hz with the amps xover. 
And from what I've read, those speakers need a 40 hour break in period too. Have you had 40 hours of actual play on them yet?


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

First you say 85Hz now you say 70Hz which is it? ...yes I have had my break in period haha aka scam, there is no such thing. After 40 hours you are less likely to return them. 

I thought 2 Focal 2-ohm speakers (tweeters/mids) through the passive = 4Ohm? That may explain a bit, I overlooked the load I was putting on the amp which says 4Ohm when bridged. 

I would never try to run a sub off my Zapco, and the problem with un-bridging it is it becomes 50W x4 @4Ohm which is pointless, my tweeters are 15W RMS I leave so much on the table with that channel I would use for the tweeters. I do not think 50W RMS is enough to push these Focal mids which is why I left it bridged. 

I know yo knock the TangBnads but they are the same wattage, meant for a wide range that I would be narrowing. They have 13MM of XMAXX so they move as much air as an 8" driver. 

I have no plans on upgrading my woofer I got it for free I am not much of a bass fan its just an ABP101T rated @ 300W RMS. Not sure my 250/1 would like being ran at full power on that sub.


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## bassfreak85 (Jul 26, 2009)

which tangband drivers are you using? tb makes decent drivers.
the focal mid is nice. you can keep those unnatural sounding tweeters. unless its the new fiber tweeters. those metal tweeters has alot of ringing. they sound amazing but the ringing is terrible on the older tweeters.
tell me the parts and the numbers on the xovers components and the drivers impedance ill tell you the xover points.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Your amp puts out [email protected], and it should put out [email protected], which is what your speaker set is. Also, your amp is NOT designed to run a 2ohm load bridged. And my xover point I'd pick is 70hz. 85hz would aslo sound good, but your Focals should have absolutely no problem playing down to 70hz.
Now, if you insist on running the TB's, then do them off two channels, 4ohm load, 50watts/channel. And your Focals off the other 2 channels, 2ohm load, 100watts /channel. 
Personally, after researching your Focals, I just wouldn't put a pair of $100~ speakers with your ~$1200 Focals. And your sub amp will be perfectly fine pushing 250watts to the 300watt sub. Won't bother it at all.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Also, if you bridged 2 channels to your sub, you'd be putting 200 watts rms to the sub, and with Zapco quality and damping factor, it will sound like other companies 300watts of power. It's a win-win situation. That amp is a sweet amp and would sound better on the sub than the JBL. Just my opinion. Run everything off that sweet Zapco amp. Way better SQ, higher damping, higher slew rate. Your sitting on a sweet little gem there. Use that gem to it's full potential. 

You can get 100watts RMS/channel at 2ohms to your Focals with it, and 200 watts RMS to the sub at same time at 4ohms bridged.


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## milburyl (Feb 23, 2014)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> I have 6.5" Tang-band drivers I plan to run as midbass, and a JBL JX250/1 amp to drive them.


Is this a JBL amp or a JL Audio? It appears to be a JL Audio by the model #.
If this is a JL amp, then it's a very good amp as well, but only a JX midel, so the Zapco amp is still the better of the two. If your gonna run the TB midbass, then the JL amp will be needed for sub duty.

Here, in my opinion is how you should set up your system.........

With TB midbass:
Zapco amp, channels 1&2, amps highpass xover set to 200hz, into the passive xovers, out to the Focal mids and tweets. They are 2ohm, so amps 1&2 channels will be putting out 100wattsx2 to the 2ohm components, playing frequencies from 200hz to 20khz. (Passive xovers cutoff frequency between mids and tweets is probably around 3 or 4khz)

Zapco amp channels 3&4, amps lowpass xover set to 200hz, American Bass xover set to highpass 70hz. TB midbass are 4ohm so the amps 3&4 channels will be putting out 50watts x2 to the 4ohm midbass, and they will be playing from 70hz ro 200hz.

JL JX250/1 puts out 250wattsx1 into a 2ohm load. If your sub is a 4ohm DVC, your all set to wire it parallel to 2ohms to get 250watts going to your sub. Personally I'd use the American Bass xover for the sub so that you will have the remote bass knob to adjust the sub from . Set the lowpass to 70hz for sub. The sub will be playing from 70hz and down (not sure of your enclosure type, so can't say how low it will play, probably around 25 or 30hz is the lowest it will play)

And make sure you set your amps inputs switch properly to accept the 9volts RMS that the external xover will be putting, and for continuity, you may as well use the external xover for the 70hz highpass on the Focals too, just so you have all amp inputs accepting the same 9volts.

Without the midbass, hook it up like my previous post and not use the JL amp at all, but using the external xover is an option that's open so you can get the nice clean 9volt RCA'S and the remote bass knob.


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