active system

dear all,

Currently my car audio using an active system in which the pioneer head unit built in active xover act as a master controller. there are no more usage of normal "passive xover" of the speakers. I did not adjust the setting manually as I dont have the capability to do it myself and after trying it a few times, the result is more bad than good. So I set it to auto by connecting the supplied microphone and the player just adjust all the setting by itself. I find the sound is very nice even after comparing it to my home system.

The question is, can I use the head unit in home hifi system? My plan is to connect the head unit to a 6 channel power amp, then route it to my floorstander speaker and also to my car subwoofer as well. Then do the "auto TA". I eill have to directly connect the speaker drivers to the power amp output (bypassing the passive xover of the speakers). Can it be done? How will it sound? and are there any risk of damaging the speakers? Have anyone tried it before? I really want to know the feed back from u all as I am really looking forward to this project.

Hi there,

Using car system in home hifi environment will work no problem; I can see 2 issues only:

1) You'll need a super strong 12V supply maybe like 10A and above. Not many available unless you use a SMPS 12V supply but it does not sound that good - or u can use a car battery which does not look nice at all.

2) With home environment, your mic positioning has more locations to experiment so the error level is much higher to get the sound right - unlike the car environment where you put the mic somewhere at the driver's seat and the speaker drivers are just nearby.

Anyway give it a try bro.

cheers

Dear Wikin,

1. Regarding the first issue, I am not planning to use a car power amp, but instead using a home power amp. Therefore I don't need to use a high power 12 volt regulator. I just happen to have a 3A 12 volt regulator which is suitable to power up the head unit only.Have experience using it to power up a Kenwood head unit before.

2. My room is small, about 10'X10'X10' only, so I think the mic might still work as in a car environment. However I will need to find longer cable for that purpose. Usually in a car, I need to set the listening position at "Front Right", so I will set the same position and the rest the "auto TA/EQ" will fine tune itself. But of course the listening position will be set dead centre in my room. However as you say, I have to try first.

3. For the first try, I will use my old mission speakers as a guinea pig, so that if anything happen, i will not regret much. However if the result is encouraging and nothing bad happen, I may use my beloved f/stander after that. Then maybe will make a lovely casing for the head unit with proper power cord etc. it depend on the outcome lo.

Lastly, I really looking forward to this project, I hope it will yield great result. So far in my car, even though I use budget power amp and speakers but the SQ is very good, even compared to my home audio system. The description is like this " The bass is adequate, punchy not boomy, the mid is clear while the high is smooth, crisp and sparkling.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, really appreciate it.

adcomer wrote:

Lastly, I really looking forward to this project, I hope it will yield great result. So far in my car, even though I use budget power amp and speakers but the SQ is very good, even compared to my home audio system. The description is like this " The bass is adequate, punchy not boomy, the mid is clear while the high is smooth, crisp and sparkling.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, really appreciate it.

Dear Adcomer,

You are most welcome and I like your spirit to try things out as opposed to sticking to standard boring hi-fi.

Trust me you will be rewarded with good sonics when using active crossover and put effort to fine tune it properly. I've personally built (mostly from scratch) 3 home active systems and they all sound very satisfying if compared to 'normal' crossover speakers. There is a sense of realism, clarity and correctness in the sound once the power amplifier controls the loudspeaker cones directly.



cheers

You are most welcome and I like your spirit to try things out as opposed to sticking to standard boring hi-fi.

Trust me you will be rewarded with good sonics when using active crossover and put effort to fine tune it properly. I've personally built (mostly from scratch) 3 home active systems and they all sound very satisfying if compared to 'normal' crossover speakers. There is a sense of realism, clarity and correctness in the sound once the power amplifier controls the loudspeaker cones directly.

Dear wikin,

I agree with you, the use of active system makes an easy correction to the cut off frequency of the driver itself. Normally one have to change the resistor or add another component such as inductor to change the cut off point of the crossover. But electronic x/over just make it an easy things to do. It just that you have to invest more in the head unit in the first place, but you save a lot in the end though. The cost to buy the Pioneer is ~ RM1.8k already, but you save a lot coz, there are built in xover, Time Alignment and auto Equalization inside, so actually you save a lot. Plus you don't have to buy expensive gears to get the sound that you want.

And the best thing is that after the adjustment, you can hear the effect directly. So its very easy you know. But I prefer the auto EQ/TA as I find that the result is sufficient already.

Another thing is that even though there is a sub in the system, you won't notice the sub is there, as if the sub is non existence. but if you switch off the sub, you will miss something. That is what a sub should do.

Really appreciate your support, will update the progress later on.

dear adcomer,

to get the most out of a homemade system , get an experience person in tuning the crossover or head unit with time alignment , to tune the system for you. normally they can know the limititation of your system eg the tweeter & how to blend them together. i like subs driven by digital amp..

Kamalz,

Tq for the advise. The sad thing is that I dont have any friends that have knowledge regarding TA. My brother should know about it but he's not from around here. I suppose have to do it myself or just use the auto TA feature built in the head unit.

The only hiccup is that if we switch off the power all the setting will lost. After googling, some recommend to connect to a 12volt motorcycle battery so that after switching off the power, the memory will remains. So still thinking about this before start the project.

dear all,

after few months and doing other project, finally my car head unit aka Pioneer deh-80prs was hook up to my home via a small 12v power supply. Tried it in active set up with my old speaker, the sound is promising.
After the initial listening, I tried using the Auto EQ and TA. However 1 of the speakers woofer kaput. As my power amp does not have gain control when the programme is running, the extra power was given out and causes the kaput of the woofer. Luckily the woofer was recycle from my old car only.
As a further experiment, I hook up the head unit to my tube amp (EL34) and use it as a pre-amp. The sound is actually better than using my cd player. This is in a standard setting without any equalization yet. This is better than I expected. Than I connect the mic to the pioneer and started the Auto EQ/TA programme. The mic was located ~ 150cm from both of the speakers & was ~ ear level. Then "asta lavista", suddenly the sound opens up. The treble smooth up, bass became tauter, vocals also get better definition. Only thing need to adjust is the left to right balance as the sound seems to be louder on the right side. With minor adjustment on the eq, I am able to get a balance frequency that I want. This is very very satisfying indeed.
Curious some more I then hook my Fullrange 12" Audio Nirvana to it and the sound is far better compared to using my tube amp only. Then I run the Auto TA/EQ again. The result was astonishing, the difference is very obvious. The bass fuller but still taut, vocal and high freq stand out very smooth presentation. This is coming from an "open Baffle" set up, but the bass sound is seem to coming from a box. This is unbeleivable. The TA and Auto EQ really that good.
So that is my initial report, I will review more after this, and will follow up with pictures soon.