i hear alot of people talk about active setups, but what are they, how do you achieve them, what equipment do you need, etc...?

sorry im a noob i would like to be educated!

thanks!

 

Active means using active crossovers (before an amp). On the contrary, passive crossovers are hooked up between an amplifier and the speakers.

For an active setup, one would need a head unit with built in crossovers, so you can use the head unit's internal amp, or any head unit with rca output(s), external active crossovers, and amps.

 

Depends on what your refering to when you say "active".

Active usually means a device with its own power source that is continuously updating the signal.

 

apparently i thought going active would be like this:

ACTIVE:

headunit >>> amp (4ch) >>> component speakers (-passove crossovers)
* 2 channels would be for the tweets and the other 2 channels would be for the mids.

PASSIVE:

headunit >>> amp (4ch) >>> crossovers >>> component speakers

i guess im wrong!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by imola-red dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
i guess im wrong! </TD></TR></TABLE>
Your correct your wrong

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by imola-red dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">apparently i thought going active would be like this:

ACTIVE:
headunit &gt;&gt;&gt; amp (4ch) &gt;&gt;&gt; component speakers (-passove crossovers)
* 2 channels would be for the tweets and the other 2 channels would be for the mids.

PASSIVE:
headunit &gt;&gt;&gt; amp (4ch) &gt;&gt;&gt; crossovers &gt;&gt;&gt; component speakers
i guess im wrong! </TD></TR></TABLE>

What you're describing there would be passive biamping assuming you were using the the 4 channel amp for only 2 channels. i'm not sure theres really much difference in those 2 examples.

You can biamp with an active crossover like so.
Headunit --&gt; active crossover ---&gt; 4 channel amp or 2 2 channel amps or whatever your setup requires ----&gt; speakers.

 

Passive bi-amping defeats the purpose of bi-amping. You would bi-amp to use the amps' power most efficiently. For example, for passive bi-amping tweeters, you would need an amp that would not clip the bass (let's say 50w), because the amp is getting a full-range signal. The amplified signal is then filtered for the tweeters by the passive XO. When you actively bi-amp, the amp only receives the high frequencies, therefore a 20w amp would be sufficient.