To go active, or not
 

A freind of mine is doing up his car in the next couple weeks and we've ran into a dissagreement. I want him to go with Active crossovers, and he wants to use the rear speakers. We will be using an Alpine PXE-H660 processor.

What are your guys' thoughts?

The car is an 09 Mitsubishi Galant with the Rockford system. All speakers will be replaced.

It usually requires more attention, experimentation, and tuning to get a passive system to the same level as an active system. If he can afford it, he absolutely should go active.

Why does it matter if he wants back speakers or not?

go active for sure.

i'm assuming rears are in question because of available amp channels?

either way i'd drop the rears.

if the processing and amp channels are there though, why wouldn't you go active? it offers so much more flexibility.

Do you already have the processor?

If your on a tight budget and you only need sound, passive is fine. If you want the car to sound decent, active is your best bet.

Passives can do many things, but in a car the adjustability of active makes it king.

Alright. We now have convinced him to go active. The subwoofers he picked out are the Hertz HX300. We will be using two of them. The recommended box (sealed) from hertz is .93 cubic feet per sub. Being an SPL guy this seems a bit small. Any recommendations?

oh. and the processor is on the way.

I am running a Mille 2500 sub and I can say that your volume numbers are pretty bang on. My 10 is about 0.5 ft3 and the 12 I believe is around 1 ft3 or so (maybe a little less). Mine sounds absolutely amazing. I will say that these are serious sq subs and not to be used if you are looking to shake some ground if ya know what I mean. They do get loud just fine but they are more clean than loud. Does that make sense? What processor did you end up going with? Also, what components are you going with up front? IMO, the choice there is 100x more important that the type of sub you choose. So many newbies get too focused on what sub in the beginning. I know I was there. A good sub can make a big difference but not as much as a top set of components.

That makes sense when you run a sealed enclosure that is too small. JMO.

Well he got most of the gear in now. All hertz stuff (waiting on the new amps), and we are using the PXE-H660. Couldnt be beat for the price. We'll be using two Hertz HX250 and the new ML speakers up front. Install will probably start tomorrow.

I would be very interested in your comments on the system once you get it going. Are you going two or three way up front? You might have mentioned it but what kind of vehicle is this going into?