I ditched the passives
06-22-2011, 10:31 AM
#1
500 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 633
I ditched the passives
So after months of deliberation (deliberately being lazy) I took the plunge yesterday and pulled the plug on my passive xovers. I have been using a set of JBL Power series components for the past few years, I figure they don't owe me anything, so I would be willing to possibly toss them under the bus. For power I am using 2 channels of a Ax400 (art series) 50wpc for tweeters and a 2150am 150wpc for mids. Before the switch I was using half a 4 channel per door at 200wpc - though some of that lost through the passives. For a xover I am using a Memphis 3 way.
I haven't played around with how much volume I can get, but I am loving it already. I have heard some details that never existed before. There does however appear to be something not quite right with one of the mids. I played some 60-80hz sweeps and one is definitely not like the other. The cone is still very stiff and the spider does not "appear" to be stretched, but at lower frequencies the one driver does not stay as well controlled as the other ( I swapped the mid's and the problem moved with the speaker) - so I guess the easy fix would be to track down some better mid's. I am fine with the titanium tweeters as I can now turn them down and I find they do play a little lower than the passives were allowing for. I spent $30 on that xover thinking I would never even use it, turned out to be a great piece!
I haven't played around with how much volume I can get, but I am loving it already. I have heard some details that never existed before. There does however appear to be something not quite right with one of the mids. I played some 60-80hz sweeps and one is definitely not like the other. The cone is still very stiff and the spider does not "appear" to be stretched, but at lower frequencies the one driver does not stay as well controlled as the other ( I swapped the mid's and the problem moved with the speaker) - so I guess the easy fix would be to track down some better mid's. I am fine with the titanium tweeters as I can now turn them down and I find they do play a little lower than the passives were allowing for. I spent $30 on that xover thinking I would never even use it, turned out to be a great piece!
06-24-2011, 08:40 AM
#6
500 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 633
Speakers are mounted in factory door location T-nutted to a MDF baffle. Inside skin is deadened in area closest to the speaker, the rest of the door is deadened and covered in CCF. I have so far used 1 lb of modelling clay around each mid. I am happy, but never satisfied. I would love to see my outputs with a scope (or would I?)
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
