Mr.DatSubishi

I said passive because its a one time thing, but I guess the flexibility of an active network is appealing. But yeah, I'd still like to try and work on the passive anyways, if anything I'll just consider it a new thing I understand.[/QUOTE]

Passive is not necessarily a one time thing. If your crossover points aren't a smooth transition you may need to experiment more than a couple times. Active is more of a one time thing considering you can experiment and tweak anytime vs. building a new passive network every time.

Dukk

Why so many speakers? What full range amp do you have that plays at 1 ohm stereo? There are a few out there, but not all that many.

Unless you stick to single order networks with inexpensive parts, it is usually about the same money to just go active and way easier.

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

Its an SD 400.1. Later on I think we're going to change to a bigger amp with more channels or just multiple amps, but thats what we've got for now. It looks like it will do the job.

Don't active networks require multiple amps? That's the issue I thought was the biggest concern so I sugggested passive assuming I would be able to figure something out.

And now for the dumbass portion of the evening, while I have an understanding of a 6db rolloff vs a 12db rolloff, if there any benefit to either over the other? My guess is so long as the filters on the first order are set higher than the 2nd order the results will be similar...?

Dukk

SD400.1 I'm not so familiar but the model number looks like a mono amp, not stereo. And I would suspect then that it also has a limited bandwidth, ie is not full range..

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

Well the amp's frequency response goes up to I think 20 khz or something, and there is a **** for a HPF or full range mode on it, though it is pretty small distance covered when you turn it and covers a huge range, so I'm not sure exactly how accurate it is, which is why I'm thinking the crossover is the best way to go.

If needed the amp can always change down the road to something that works at 4 ohms, or 2x2ohms, or even 2 4 ohm amps. Our biggest concerns for this build are deciding whether to go active or passive and what would be the best way to do either.

I saw there were some passives available online but I'd much rather build it as it doesn't look too hard (though I'm probably very, VERY wrong about that).

Dukk

Physically assembling them isn't too hard (IMO anyway)

It's just getting the design right. The worst thing about passives is they're hard to adjust after the fact

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

Do you have any suggestions on starting crossover points? I've never done anything like this before aside from using crossovers on a head unit.

Also, any idea how an active setup would work with one amp? Or should I just try a passive setup first?

Dukk

Active requires an amp channel per speaker.

Starter points:
Sub to midbass: 80hz
Midbass to midrange: 250hz to 400hz depending on slope and size of mid
Midrange to highs: 3500-4500hz

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

Active will wait for another day then.

I take it these are the starting values for the filters, in which case I get it, though I wonder, is a bandpass on the midrange a good idea or does it not matter?

Dukk

It depends on the mid, the tweeter, and where they are mounted. You can always try highpass only on the mid at first and see how it blends with the tweet.