Paul Niwranski

Amps do not sound radically different when ran unclipped. And we are talking about a sub amp here - buy as much reliable power as you can afford.

Definitely buy a component set over a coaxial set. I like a 4"+tweet set, then get a set of 6" midbass for the doors and forget the back coaxials altogether. You were looking at a 4ch amp for highs anyway, just use 2ch on the 6s and 2ch on the 4/tw. If you're wanting to keep it simple, a 5/tw set does the job.

And yeah a comp set comes with passive crossovers and they will be just fine.

defro13

And yeah a comp set comes with passive crossovers and they will be just fine. [/QB][/QUOTEcome on dukk do you really belive that, tell the truth, i know that you have seen some of the "high quality" x-overs that come with many component sets, some are fine , but the majority are terrible and dont measure up to the quality of the speakers being used in a lot of cases

Paul Niwranski

Well I wanted to be fair Dave so I went and opened my Canton, Oz, RF Audiophile, and Hart passives that were handy and they all looked alright. Most of them use aircore coils but a couple were iron core - in all cases the wire gauge was adequate IMO. They pretty much used poly caps when inline with the signal and electrolytics only across the line.

I'll agree that most comp sets under about $500 have relatively budget passives but they do the job. I usually make my own anyway [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

defro13

i might agree that over 500 the passives get better, but it sometimes frightens me to see the components used in some "high end" component speaker sets, when you build your own do you lms the speakers or do you use the manufaturers component values and use better quality caps, coils etc, whats your take on electronic x-overs

Paul Niwranski

I don't do individual testing on the drivers. I trust the manufacturers I use to have decent tolerances on their printed data. And I never copy a manufacturer's idea of a passive network - I like to do it my way [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Electronic crossovers make the job easier, plain and simple. I like passives but the effort in setting it up is horrendous and I like the individual level setting that an active system offers.