will F-90BT work with bi-amped components?

[CT]

Will a regular 2way headunit work with my setup? I am interested in purchasing the new F series Pioneer F-90BT indash. But I'm not sure it will work with how my components are hooked up as of currently. Well here's my issue...

 

I have my components up front bi amped... which means i am completely bypassing the passive xovers that came with em and wiring them directly to my 4 channel amp (jl 450/4). I am using the 3way active xover built into my alpine cda-9833 headunit. This way I have much more control tuning my speakers.

 

I been wanting to get a new headunit for awhile now but have put up due to this problem. I wasn't sure if I can have a regular 2 way xover headunit will work with my bi-amped components?

 

I am thinking about turning the xover completely off in the headunit and using the crossovers built in my amp directly to crossover the tweeters and mids? Would that be possible? Or do i have to use the passive xovers that came with my speakers? This is the only thing that is stopping me from buying a new headunit.

 

It's so rare to find a unit with a built in 3way xover mode... all I see are 2way xovers now... Please help. I don not want to ruin my components by hooking them up this way if this won't work.

[HiFiSi]

You can use the front channel outputs for the tweeters and the rear channel outputs for the midrange speakers and use the amplifier's built in crossovers if it has them. If it doesn't, you're going to have to use the passive crossovers that came with the components and just run them off two channels of the amp instead of four.

[CT]

You can use the front channel outputs for the tweeters and the rear channel outputs for the midrange speakers and use the amplifier's built in crossovers if it has them. If it doesn't, you're going to have to use the passive crossovers that came with the components and just run them off two channels of the amp instead of four.

 

The JL 450/5 does have xovers for the front and rear channels, here are the specs..

 

-Channel 1 & 2 Crossover : Fully-Variable (50~5Hz), selectable slope (12dB or 24dB/octave) LP, BP or HP

 

Channel 3 & 4 Crossover : Fully-Variable (50~5Hz), selectable slope (12dB or 24dB/octave) HP

 

So will this work with my components bi-amped with the Pioneer F90BT? I am not sure what to set the crossovers to on my jl 450/4... Im guessing i wire the tweeters to channels 3/4 since the xover is HP only and my mids to channel 3/4 set to BP? Not sure what about the 12dB/24dB, what do i set those to?

 

Thanks for the reply! I am more excited now to get the F90BT!

[HiFiSi]

Run the midranges on channel 1 & 2 using the low pass filter at whatever the manufacturer's spec is for the midrange's maximum frequency.

 

Run the tweeters on channel 3 & 4 using the high pass filter at whatever the manufacturer's spec is for the tweeter's minimum frequency.

 

Then set the low pass filter on the AVIC to whatever the minimum frequency recommended for the midrange speaker is.

 

That way you have a low and high cutoff for the midrange and a low cutoff for the tweeter.

 

As for the cutoff slope, there's not much of a difference between the 12 and 24 db settings, but I'd say use 12 so once it hits the cutoff frequency it slopes off faster so you get less out of range frequencies going to the speakers.

[CT]

Run the midranges on channel 1 & 2 using the low pass filter at whatever the manufacturer's spec is for the midrange's maximum frequency.

 

Run the tweeters on channel 3 & 4 using the high pass filter at whatever the manufacturer's spec is for the tweeter's minimum frequency.

 

Then set the low pass filter on the AVIC to whatever the minimum frequency recommended for the midrange speaker is.

 

That way you have a low and high cutoff for the midrange and a low cutoff for the tweeter.

 

As for the cutoff slope, there's not much of a difference between the 12 and 24 db settings, but I'd say use 12 so once it hits the cutoff frequency it slopes off faster so you get less out of range frequencies going to the speakers.

 

I'm setting the LP xover point on my amp for the midrange speaker and also on the AVIC headunit as well? Why do I need to set it in both places? If the amp is handling the xover cutoff points for everything, don't i just completely shut of the AVIC's xover and let my amp handle everything? Sorta confused.

[VBLUE42]

You dont have to, just if you want to have control over the low and high cutoff of the midranges. Lets say you have your subwoofer set to 100hz low pas cutoff. Your mids are capable of 80hz low pass cutoff but you dont want the two speakers to overlap frequencies, then you would use the low pass filter in teh head unit to set the low pass one the mids and use the high pass filter on the amp to set the high pass cutoff on the mids so you dont overlap frequencies with your tweeters. There is nothing that says you should not have overlapping cutoffs for different speakers but you do have that control at your disposal if you follow HiFISi's instructions. A good crossover setup however with a multi speaker component set will have both LP and HP crossover options for the mids.

[VBLUE42]

[Channel 3 & 4 Crossover : Fully-Variable (50~5Hz), selectable slope (12dB or 24dB/octave)

 

Im a little concerned about the crossover frequencies you have indicated though. If your saying the amp has highpass cutoff at 5hz to 50hz for gods sake dont set your tweeters to any of these frequencies or they will be toast. If you were trying to say 50hz to 5khz then your good. I would not set highpass frequencies to any lower then 2.5khz for most good tweeters though. Certainly double check your specs though.

[CT]

You dont have to, just if you want to have control over the low and high cutoff of the midranges. Lets say you have your subwoofer set to 100hz low pas cutoff. Your mids are capable of 80hz low pass cutoff but you dont want the two speakers to overlap frequencies, then you would use the low pass filter in teh head unit to set the low pass one the mids and use the high pass filter on the amp to set the high pass cutoff on the mids so you dont overlap frequencies with your tweeters. There is nothing that says you should not have overlapping cutoffs for different speakers but you do have that control at your disposal if you follow HiFISi's instructions. A good crossover setup however with a multi speaker component set will have both LP and HP crossover options for the mids.

 

I see, was a little confused for a bit. So with HiFiSi's method I will be able to control the HP and LP cutoff points for my midrange speaker from the F90?

[VBLUE42]

Yep, its the way I would do it as well.

[CT]

[Channel 3 & 4 Crossover : Fully-Variable (50~5Hz), selectable slope (12dB or 24dB/octave)

 

Im a little concerned about the crossover frequencies you have indicated though. If your saying the amp has highpass cutoff at 5hz to 50hz for gods sake dont set your tweeters to any of these frequencies or they will be toast. If you were trying to say 50hz to 5khz then your good. I would not set highpass frequencies to any lower then 2.5khz for most good tweeters though. Certainly double check your specs though.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I read the manual and noticed this:

 

3) "Freq. Range" Control: When thrown to the right, this switch multiplies the cutoff frequency by the rotary "Filter Freq. (Hz)" control by a factor of 10. In the "x1" position, the range of the rotary control is 50-500Hz (as marked. In the "x10" position, the range of the rotary control is 500Hz- 5kHz (5000Hz).

 

So I think I should be ok to hook up my tweeters to this.