Semi-technical car audio question

[darien87]

Hey folks,

For those of you into car audio, I have a question for you. I just had a system installed in my 2007 Mustang GT. The system consists of:

Deck
Pioneer AVH3100 DVD

Speakers
(2) Sony 5" x 7"s in the front doors
(2) Kicker 8"s in the doors
(2) Sony 5" x 7"s in the rear deck
(1) Fosgate R1 12" sub, sealed box in trunk

Amps
Fosgate Prime R300-4, running 5" x 7"s in the front doors and rear deck
Fosgate Prime R150-2, running Kicker 8"s in the front doors
Fosgate Prime R150-2, bridged running 12" in the trunk

Here is my dilemma. The Pioneer deck only has front and rear pre-outs. I am using the front pre-outs for the door speakers and the rear deck speakers. The rear pre-outs are going to the sub. I have the High Pass in the deck set at 63Hz, because the Sony 5" x 7"s are rated down to 50Hz. Unfortunately, I believe that this means that my Kicker 8's are also being crossed over at 63Hz. The 8's are rated down to 25Hz.

So what I need to know is, does anyone make an active crossover or processor that I can use to cross over all the speakers in my system instead of having the deck do it? I would like to be able to cross my 5" x 7"s over at about 60Hz, then have the 8"s playing from 60Hz down to about 30Hz, with the 12" in the trunk playing from like 50Hz down.

Also, I don't have the ability to fade from front to back. Is there a crossover/processor that can take the single pre-out from my deck and split it into 2 front front and rear speakers? It's not as important as the crossover question, but the ability to fade would be nice.

Hopefully this all makes sense. So am I just screwed, or does someone make something like this?


Thanks,
Darien

 

[tattoo_Dan]

this line IMO is very good, http://www.zapco.com/prod/signal_procs/

 

[highfigh]

Hey folks,

For those of you into car audio, I have a question for you. I just had a system installed in my 2007 Mustang GT. The system consists of:

Deck
Pioneer AVH3100 DVD

Speakers
(2) Sony 5" x 7"s in the front doors
(2) Kicker 8"s in the doors
(2) Sony 5" x 7"s in the rear deck
(1) Fosgate R1 12" sub, sealed box in trunk

Amps
Fosgate Prime R300-4, running 5" x 7"s in the front doors and rear deck
Fosgate Prime R150-2, running Kicker 8"s in the front doors
Fosgate Prime R150-2, bridged running 12" in the trunk

Here is my dilemma. The Pioneer deck only has front and rear pre-outs. I am using the front pre-outs for the door speakers and the rear deck speakers. The rear pre-outs are going to the sub. I have the High Pass in the deck set at 63Hz, because the Sony 5" x 7"s are rated down to 50Hz. Unfortunately, I believe that this means that my Kicker 8's are also being crossed over at 63Hz. The 8's are rated down to 25Hz.

So what I need to know is, does anyone make an active crossover or processor that I can use to cross over all the speakers in my system instead of having the deck do it? I would like to be able to cross my 5" x 7"s over at about 60Hz, then have the 8"s playing from 60Hz down to about 30Hz, with the 12" in the trunk playing from like 50Hz down.

Also, I don't have the ability to fade from front to back. Is there a crossover/processor that can take the single pre-out from my deck and split it into 2 front front and rear speakers? It's not as important as the crossover question, but the ability to fade would be nice.

Hopefully this all makes sense. So am I just screwed, or does someone make something like this?


Thanks,
Darien

Audio Control makes some and they're really good. Here's a link:
http://www.audiocontrol.com/t34/5251/Car-Audio-Electronic-Crossovers.html

Personally, setting everything correctly makes fading mostly unnecessary. It takes time but if you can get the main imaging at the front, use the rear for fill and have a balanced level for the sub(s), it'll sound more real and be fiddled with less.

 

[j_garcia]

I would guess that the 8s are only good to 25hz if they are in a proper enclosure, though they could definitely be crossed lower than the 5x7s.

Is the R150 a sub amp? Does it have it's own crossover? If so, just send a full range signal to the rear, split it to the two amps and let the sub's amp handle crossover duty for it (or get an amp that does).

 

[annunaki]

Here is what I would do if you want to keep cost down.

Get two pair of the Harrison Labs FMOD RCA 80hz high-pass filters. Run the highpass output from the head unit at 50hz. Place the FMODs on the inputs of the 4 channel amp that drives your 5x7's.

You will then need a set of 80hz lowpass FMODs to place on the input of the amp for the 8's. This will give you an active midbass setup from 50hz-80hz. The high pass filter for the 5x7's will be cascaded beginning at 80hz resulting in a 24db/oct. filter from that point on.

If that is not what you were thinking, then I would do this option: Clarion DRZ9255 This has all the crossover capability you need along with time alignment.

 

[darien87]

Wow, Zapco and Audio Control? Talk about a blast from the past. I've been out of the car audio game for a while, but when I was a teenager, those were 2 names that were way out of my league, price-wise. Good to see they're still around.

Some other brands that I loved but could never afford were:

Orion
Soundstream
Linear Power
Precision Power
Eclipse
Nakamichi

 

[speakerman39]

Darien, why not just set the X-over point at 63 Hz and then use a 30 Hz F-mod (high pass 12db/octave) on the 8" subs in your doors? Have you thought about doing that? Why not give it a try? It certainly would be the least expensive way of doing it.



Cheers,

Phil

 

[darien87]

Here is what I would do if you want to keep cost down.

Get two pair of the Harrison Labs FMOD RCA 80hz high-pass filters. Run the highpass output from the head unit at 50hz. Place the FMODs on the inputs of the 4 channel amp that drives your 5x7's.

You will then need a set of 80hz lowpass FMODs to place on the input of the amp for the 8's. This will give you an active midbass setup from 50hz-80hz. The high pass filter for the 5x7's will be cascaded beginning at 80hz resulting in a 24db/oct. filter from that point on.

If that is not what you were thinking, then I would do this option: Clarion DRZ9255 This has all the crossover capability you need along with time alignment.

This sounds like a good idea. Keeping costs down is good. But I'm totally clueless on how to do this. I actually want to cross my 5" x 7"s over a little higher, like 65 or 70Hz, as I've heard them distort at high volume.

So how would I go about crossing my 5" x 7"s over at 70Hz, then have the 8"s playing from 80 to about 40Hz?

Thanks for the help.

 

[darien87]

OK, I just did a little looking around for the Fmods and read 2 reviews that both said that the Fmods introduced noise into their systems. I sure don't want to use them if they're noisy.

 

[j_garcia]

OK, I just did a little looking around for the Fmods and read 2 reviews that both said that the Fmods introduced noise into their systems. I sure don't want to use them if they're noisy.

FMods are basically passive inline crossover elements, though in the signal stage instead of after amplification, which is why there could possibly be more noise. An active crossover is more complex and more costly, but it will also give you the most flexibility overall. Back in the day I used to do custom installs; that's where I got started in audio

 

[darien87]

My installer does mainly Kicker components. I was looking at Kicker's website and the KX3 looks like it will fit the bill.

http://www.kicker.com/crossovers

He says he'll put this in for me for $150, so I think that's the route I will take.