250 passive or 75 x 4 active

Post by **smgreen20** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:37 pm

Was in a conversation at work today and this scenario came up.

What do YOU think would sound better?
What do you think would get louder?

Option 1: ZX450v2 bridged to 250 x 2 to the PG Elite6 comps w/the passive
Option 2: ZX450v2 at 75 x 4 active to the Elites
Option 3: ZX450v2 Chs 1/2 at 75 x 2 to the Elite comps passive (both tweet and mid) and Chs 3/4 75 x 2 to the PG RSD6 comps- mid only.???

Sense the Elite 6 is great in the upper mid bass and the RSD 6 is better in the lower mid bass, We were talking about doing a 3-way set up using the Elite comps and the mid from the RSD comps.

ZX450v2 Ch 1 and 2 to the Elite6 comps (w/the passive mid and tweet) crossed over at 200Hz HP, and bandpass the RSD 6 on Ch 3 and 4 from 63hz HP/200Hz LP.

Your thoughts?

Post by **mr tibbs** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:46 pm

For that scenario I would go with the Elites with the passive getting 250 per side. All other options to me look like you are under powering the mids. I would want a lot more juice on the mids then on the tweets. Just my .02 cents.

Thunderdome · Post by **Thunderdome** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:38 pm

I like the 250 by 2 as well... 75 is a bit weak for a good quality mid.

gkitching · Post by **gkitching** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:49 am

Think of it this way. 75w x 4 is really 150w / side. Versus 250w per side in the passive set-up. It's a 100 watt difference. (Remember, running say 100 watts thru a passive x-over doesn't mean 100 watts goes to the tweeter and 100 watts to the mid. The power will be divided to each driver) Now throw in the efficiency of going active versus the power soak of a passive x-over. I would wager there wouldn't be much of an audible difference in output between the two.

75w is good power for an efficient driver like the elites. Maybe not enough for a lesser efficient driver.

I've had great success running the zx/ti 450's as a 3-way as well. (3 different IASCA world champs with this set-up) Passive for the mid and tweet while active on the midbass. But these were not 'monster' systems either. Typically 500-600watts on the sub made for a well balanced system.

You are running active now right? It shouldn't be hard for you to test your ideas. I say try all 3 and give us your findings

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:04 am

joyride · Post by **joyride** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:55 am

I personally did not mind the elites off the fronts only of the 450. It got plenty loud enough for me (although I dont listen at 130+ levels). I was going to keep the rear open to a dedicated midbass but never got around to it.

vin78 · Post by **vin78** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:30 am

I would go active. Im pretty sure the reason why they can handle globs of power is because of the inefficient passives <my guess>.