Car Audio Crosovers question,

[extremy]

Are Auto Audio crossovers made as active units only? Most I have seen have 12 volts input, which to me, makes them on the active side. Are there any Auto Audio crossovers that are meant to be used as passive crossovers?
I could use the crossover points of, MOBILE AUTHORITY MAX-5 5-Way Electronic Crossover. But I can make use of this unit only if its set up as a passive crossover.
Please give me some ideas. And many thanks for those!

GH

[Immo_G]

Sounds like both are active to me, passives don't have a supply voltage.

Usually you can tell just looking at the unit, passives have speaker terminals, actives have line level.

[BugRock]

What are Passive Crossovers?

- Passive crossovers are made up of coils and capacitors.

What are Active Crossovers?

- Active crossovers uses a supply voltage in order for the ICs inside it to work.

- From my point of view, active crossovers have a big advantage since it can boost certain signals and attenuate the unwanted ones. But, passive crossovers will just act as another load for the amp which can lessen the amps output to some degree,
- The cut-off frequency for the active X-overs is variable whereas in the passive, the frequency is fixed.

Hope you have a wider knowledge of the X-overs now...

[jschen]

Hey I'm from Nebraska too! Anyways from what I understand you are trying to buy passive crossovers? They do make them for car audio, they usually come with component sets and the like. If you are trying to build them from scratch it may not be worth it. On the other hand if you are going to try the active approach be aware that you need an amp for every set of channels: i.e. if you have a midrange, midbass, tweeter, you would need an amp for midrange,midbass, and tweeter.

[extremy]

Here's what I want to do. I'm going to use 1 - 12" for woofer, 1 - 8" for low-midrange, 2 - 6" for high-midrange, and 2 - horn tweets.
I was looking around through a lot of pages and was wondering about the active crossovers for Auto Audio usage. Well I don't know if I could use them for passive even if I hooked them up to 12 volt power, ha. That's one answer I haven't gotten for free!
I'd like that to work, then having a set of crossover would be easier.
If I end up making my own crossovers, well I'm able to take on the challenge. I've had enough electronics training to be dangerous! And, I'm fairly fearless... so,
I met up with one fine looking JBL 4-way crossover schematic on one web page. It looks like I can work through changing the values to compensate extra drivers in series in a couple of circuits.
The only bad part is that I'm sure I'll take my time to add quality components, and so tie up some time looking around for prices. Foil wound inductors and special power caps, and the likes are plentiful!

If this all works out I'll have a couple of home-brew speakers.
Also, I'm in a research mode waiting to see what markets do in this BSE trouble we're in. Its got my work in upheaval and we're all watching for news.

Its nice to hear from you! I hope to find ideas here about some designs or guidance on the electronics.

GH

[jschen]

Here's some info:

http://ccs.exl.info/cust_cr.html

One of the best sites:
http://www.bcae1.com/