# Need help with Focal 165KRX3 crossover ASAP



## UNBROKEN (Sep 25, 2009)

I started my install this morning. Gonna run everything passive untill funds allow different amps to go active.

OK...in the install manual it shows very basic connections.
Power in, mid-bass out, midrange out and tweeter out.
In real life...there are 2 sets of terminals for power....the 2nd is just added on above the one shown in the manual.
The second terminal has to be hooked up for the mid-bass to play.

I called the local Focal dealer and he told me to either bi-amp it ( not in the extra fund account right now) or jump the 2 sets of power in terminals together.

I tried this....but who knows what load this way is showing my amp. He said he thought it was 1.5 ohms.

He told me they ran into this on the first set they installed also. They ran the jumper wire and it would shut the amp down at high volume due the the ohm load. It was also mentioned that there is a jumper wire in the crossover that their Focal rep told them to clip to make everything play as the manual shows at a 4 ohm load. He would'nt tell me what wire that is due to it voiding the warranty. I could care less about the warranty...I just want them to play. LOL

I took apart the crossover and the only actual wires are for the extra power terminal. The positive wire comes off the terminal and goes directly into the circuit board. The ground wire goes into the board then extends from that point across the board to another terminal.

Any ideas ?

Here's what the manual shows:









Here's what you actually get:









Here's the wires on bottom:


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## nugrbeer (Aug 24, 2009)

can you put a pic up of the both sides of the crossover board showing the hole board but as close as possible


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## tinctorus (Oct 5, 2009)

It just looks like a normal 2 way crossover so you should just have + and - going in thats full range and midbass midrange and tweeter out 

Shouldn't be to hard to figure out in reality


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## nugrbeer (Aug 24, 2009)

The reason I wana see the pics is I have the crossover that isn't byamp abul so I wana see what orca is doing to add that I talked to orca and they sed they would send me a email showing me what they do to add that set of inputs but I never got it. 

That set of inputs is added by orca here not focal focal isn't doing any thing to fix the inpeedenc dip


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## UNBROKEN (Sep 25, 2009)

tinctorus said:


> It just looks like a normal 2 way crossover so you should just have + and - going in thats full range and midbass midrange and tweeter out
> 
> Shouldn't be to hard to figure out in reality


It's a 3 way crossover and has to be bi-amped. I had to call Orca to figure out what they did and why. Not so easy to figure out when the actuall part is nothing like the manual shows. 


I can't get pics. I wish I could but my truck is in Texas and I'm in Pennsylvania at the moment.


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## Mitsu1grn (Sep 22, 2008)

Greetings All!!

What we have run into with the 165 KRX3 is that a lot of amplifiers in the market today,( especially those that are based on full range class D), will not run this system. The reason behind this is an ohm load swing in the bass driver around 150hz. When the system is pushed, the impedance drop is to around .8 ohms stereo. Now, it is not for very long, but some of the amplifiers out there will not handle this and the go into protection. 

The "fix" for this is to Bi-amp the system. Now, there are amplifiers out there that will run the KRX3's without having to Bi-amp the system. As many of you know, this 3 way system is very good and can be extremely demanding on any amplifier. They are extremely dynamic and can be taxing on any amplifier. Take care when considering what kind of amplifier you are going to use!!

Nick Wingate Jr.
National Sales Training Coordinator
Focal America


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## tinctorus (Oct 5, 2009)

UNBROKEN said:


> It's a 3 way crossover and has to be bi-amped. I had to call Orca to figure out what they did and why. Not so easy to figure out when the actuall part is nothing like the manual shows.
> 
> 
> I can't get pics. I wish I could but my truck is in Texas and I'm in Pennsylvania at the moment.


Sorry I was just going off the pictures I didnt realize he had work done to them...


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## nugrbeer (Aug 24, 2009)

here is what orca dose this is what they sent me


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## topperge (Jul 19, 2009)

Mitsu1grn said:


> Greetings All!!
> 
> What we have run into with the 165 KRX3 is that a lot of amplifiers in the market today,( especially those that are based on full range class D), will not run this system. The reason behind this is an ohm load swing in the bass driver around 150hz. When the system is pushed, the impedance drop is to around .8 ohms stereo. Now, it is not for very long, but some of the amplifiers out there will not handle this and the go into protection.
> 
> ...


Nick,
Do you have a list of amplifiers that are known to work without having to bi-amp the system? I have a set of these sitting on my kitchen table and don't have the space in my vehicle for another amp to bi-amp this setup.

Thanks


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## Mitsu1grn (Sep 22, 2008)

Greetings!!

There are several amplifiers out there that will run the KRX3's as two channels are concerned. They are:

Focal FP 2.150LE
STEG 2/02-03-04
Any of the Mosconi amplifers of proper power
Any of the Synfoni amplifiers of proper power
McIntosh MC431 was reported by one of our dealers to be able to drive this


That is it so far. These I know will work. Our rep in the Midwest had a set in his cadillac with a FP 2.150 running the set and he has never had a problem with them. Hope this helps!

Nick


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## Mtgrooves (Dec 14, 2009)

Yeah our rep here in montana flat out told us not to order this set as well as the Polyglass 3 way set due to the wack ohm load, however if you bi amp them they are totally out of control. I know this is not helpful but thats the story on the dealer end of things.


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## Mtgrooves (Dec 14, 2009)

oh on a side note I got to see th Mosconi amps that Orca has coming to replace Steg due to them going chaper 11 and all I can say is wow we are ordering our sample this month and I can't wait to play with it!


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## nugrbeer (Aug 24, 2009)

All jl amps do fine I ran a hd600/4 and a 300/2 both worked great


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## ibanzil (Jun 29, 2008)

I run krx3's with a tru billet 4100 bridged w/o biamping. Never would have known about any issue if I had not seen this thread. Had a arc 2150se running them for about a month. No shut downs or any problems have happened.


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## usacimember (Dec 24, 2009)

My dealer in Minnesota ran one of the Mosconi amplifiers(AS200.4). Too much power in my opinion, but he claims it was ridiculous 


Me personally, I ran the KRX2's in both configurations(standard with Focal FP 2.150LE, and Bi-amped with Focal FP2.150 and FP2.75) in both configurations I never had the amplifiers shut down on me. I will say that set LOVES to be bi-amped!


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## Micks69 (Dec 29, 2009)

This is great info. Always wanted to bi-amp the KRX3 not because of the impedance problem but the versatility for tuning.

Before this solution was sought, may I just share the use of the 100KRS crossover for the mid high of the KRX3. They will work pretty well with it and will provide quite satifactory results!


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## jcforme3927 (Apr 2, 2010)

Helpful info, all. New to the forum, grateful for the help. Anyone done similar work with the K3P?


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

Mtgrooves said:


> Yeah our rep here in montana flat out told us not to order this set as well as the Polyglass 3 way set due to the wack ohm load, however if you bi amp them they are totally out of control. I know this is not helpful but thats the story on the dealer end of things.


Just to make sure the info given is correct, the Polyglass doesn't "suffer" from the same impedance swing. Lowest is 2.9 ohm @ 120Hz - meaning any 2 channel amp on the market can power the VR3 set... 

Kelvin


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

jcforme3927 said:


> Helpful info, all. New to the forum, grateful for the help. Anyone done similar work with the K3P?


To give an answer to your question, I'm using a quasi-active system with my K3P set. Midbass on a separate channel (no passive Xover) and Midrange+Tweeter on a another channel (passive Xover in between). 
^ been using this setup for 5 years now and still love it. 

The passive has settings for tweeters in -1dB increments (from 0 to -7dB). Another setting when using the midrange low in doors to mate better with the tweeter in sails or pillars... 

Kelvin


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## The real Subzero (Apr 13, 2010)

SO is this true for every set ever made? Are they saying that this is what I have to do to my set?


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## Mitsu1grn (Sep 22, 2008)

Greetings!

Here in the US, we at Orca build the bi amp fix for the KRX3. It is recommended that you bi amp the system. It is not necessary if you have a class AB amplifier of sufficient power to drive the system and can handle the low ohm swing. If you will look at the last few posts in this thread you will see amps that can play these.

Nick


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## The real Subzero (Apr 13, 2010)

Mitsu1grn said:


> Greetings!
> 
> Here in the US, we at Orca build the bi amp fix for the KRX3. It is recommended that you bi amp the system. It is not necessary if you have a class AB amplifier of sufficient power to drive the system and can handle the low ohm swing. If you will look at the last few posts in this thread you will see amps that can play these.
> 
> Nick


ok well, I have been running these non bi amped versions for 2 months on my mmats SQ4070 amp and havent had any issues so I guess you can add that amp to the list.


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## Doc69 (Sep 6, 2013)

The real Subzero said:


> ok well, I have been running these non bi amped versions for 2 months on my mmats SQ4070 amp and havent had any issues so I guess you can add that amp to the list.


Ok I just bought a set of these...so when you say bi-amped

Does that mean you have channels 1-2 ran to one set of input terminals and then channels 3-4 running to the set of input terminals directly on top of that set of input terminals?

This entire post has me confused LOL


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## Telly_Tilt (Dec 10, 2016)

Doc69 said:


> Ok I just bought a set of these...so when you say bi-amped
> 
> Does that mean you have channels 1-2 ran to one set of input terminals and then channels 3-4 running to the set of input terminals directly on top of that set of input terminals?
> 
> This entire post has me confused LOL


this is a question that I am confused about also.

I have the JL Audio 300/4v2 Slash 4 channel amp and I want to use it to biAmp this 3 way system. All of the terminals on the crossover are labeled except for the 4 input terminals. They are the 4 terminals on the left in the pic. 

Do I just put channels 1 and 2 on the top terminals and 3 and 4 on the bottom?


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## KillerBox (Jan 7, 2011)

Does anyone know if 2 channels of an Arc Audio 1200.6 xDI can handle the Focal 3 way ohm wild swing? My problem is that I don't have enough room to add another amp.


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## KillerBox (Jan 7, 2011)

I hate to bring up an old thread but, I thought that someone here would have an answer. My Focal k2 power 165krx3 crossovers are bi-amp ready from Focal. I have them bi-amp on the same Arc Audio xDI amp. Midranges & Tweeters on Channels 1 & 2. Midbasses on Channels 5 & 6.

My question is I have a loud turn on pop that only happens when the crossovers are hooked up but, not on a stand alone test speaker. 

Does anyone else have the problem? And are the 4 channels somehow internally connected in the crossover?


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## terryna (Mar 15, 2018)

interesting, i had the same problem


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