Help with CDT front door speakers
11-11-2011, 05:23 PM
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Help with CDT front door speakers Hey guys, looking for expert advice on CDT cl 61.2 components. These were installed in a 02 hawk, the problem I have is the speakers seem way underpowered than the subs and hatch speakers(also CDT). The supplied crossover was used, after reading couple of posts, I think this may be my problem, was I not supposed to wire the crossover? The other speakers sound great, I kept the monsoon HU and amp. Any help would be appreciated.
11-11-2011, 09:26 PM
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Driving the tweeter separately from the HU integrated amp allows more power from the Monsoon external amp to drive the hungrier bass component. This is why the factory did it this way, while not leaving the HU power amps un-used.
If you use the CDT provided crossover, make sure you send it the bass component monsoon wire and be sure to remove the factory inline high-pass filter (HPF) on the tweeter. Do not send it the wire from HU that was driving only the tweeter before. Using the CDT crossover will reduce efficiency.
I generally advise to not use external crossover modules unless you have a more powerful aftermarket amp. Dragonrage will probably come in here and tell you it's better to slit your wrists than use the crappy first order filter from the factory. Just try it both ways and go with what sounds better to you. It's a choice between efficiency and better filtering, at least until you get more power.
If you use the CDT provided crossover, make sure you send it the bass component monsoon wire and be sure to remove the factory inline high-pass filter (HPF) on the tweeter. Do not send it the wire from HU that was driving only the tweeter before. Using the CDT crossover will reduce efficiency.
I generally advise to not use external crossover modules unless you have a more powerful aftermarket amp. Dragonrage will probably come in here and tell you it's better to slit your wrists than use the crappy first order filter from the factory. Just try it both ways and go with what sounds better to you. It's a choice between efficiency and better filtering, at least until you get more power.
Last edited by Capricio; 11-11-2011 at 09:32 PM.
11-12-2011, 10:53 AM
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Thanks for the input so far guys, but can anyone explain to me why you wouldn't use a crossover. How else do you seperate the signals going to each speaker in the door? Please excuse the may sound dumb questions, but audio is not my strong suit. Thanks
11-12-2011, 12:14 PM
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There is an inline cheapo HPF on the factory tweeter wire. On a firebird, the HU drives this. The HPF prevents the tweeter from trying to drive low freqs that it can't reproduce.
The woofer cone gets a full freq spectrum from the monsoon amp. It gets high freq signals it can't reproduce, and sub-bass and sub-sonic signals it can't reproduce, too. It takes much more power to drive low freq signals than high freq signals.
The CDT crossover has both an HPF and an LPF. The HPF is of a much higher quality than the simple RC (resistor capacitor) first order filter from the factory. This means the slope is steeper on the freq cutoff, and other advantages. The disadvantage is it requires more energy to drive the inductors, capacitors, and resistors in this module than you waste sending the component parts signals they can't reproduce. If you use this CDT module, you should remove the factory HPF in the door, or you will be running the tweeter signal through two separate HPFs in series.
If you have enough power, proper filtering becomes more important as a component part can become damaged if it tries to reproduce signals outside it's designed range. At lower power levels, this isn't so much an issue. This is why when you have a relatively low powered amp like the Monsoon, you are better off taking advantage of using HU amp to drive the tweeter and just letting the woofer component receive full freq spectrum.
So, to summarize, factory vs aftermarket amp w/ crossover:
Factory: crappier filtering but more efficient, low risk of damage due to low power. Simple HPF on the tweeter only, takes advantage of HU amp for tweeter. Filtering won't sound quite as good but allows you to take full advantage of the modest factory power.
Aftermarket amp with crossover: Better filtering so better sound, crossover also provides some protection to component parts. HU amp not needed or useful since it's too small to work in tandem with a real amp. Inefficiency of crossover no longer an issue.
Think of it like AC on a 79 Civic vs your LS1. It's nice to have on both but one really suffers if you use it.
The woofer cone gets a full freq spectrum from the monsoon amp. It gets high freq signals it can't reproduce, and sub-bass and sub-sonic signals it can't reproduce, too. It takes much more power to drive low freq signals than high freq signals.
The CDT crossover has both an HPF and an LPF. The HPF is of a much higher quality than the simple RC (resistor capacitor) first order filter from the factory. This means the slope is steeper on the freq cutoff, and other advantages. The disadvantage is it requires more energy to drive the inductors, capacitors, and resistors in this module than you waste sending the component parts signals they can't reproduce. If you use this CDT module, you should remove the factory HPF in the door, or you will be running the tweeter signal through two separate HPFs in series.
If you have enough power, proper filtering becomes more important as a component part can become damaged if it tries to reproduce signals outside it's designed range. At lower power levels, this isn't so much an issue. This is why when you have a relatively low powered amp like the Monsoon, you are better off taking advantage of using HU amp to drive the tweeter and just letting the woofer component receive full freq spectrum.
So, to summarize, factory vs aftermarket amp w/ crossover:
Factory: crappier filtering but more efficient, low risk of damage due to low power. Simple HPF on the tweeter only, takes advantage of HU amp for tweeter. Filtering won't sound quite as good but allows you to take full advantage of the modest factory power.
Aftermarket amp with crossover: Better filtering so better sound, crossover also provides some protection to component parts. HU amp not needed or useful since it's too small to work in tandem with a real amp. Inefficiency of crossover no longer an issue.
Think of it like AC on a 79 Civic vs your LS1. It's nice to have on both but one really suffers if you use it.
Last edited by Capricio; 11-12-2011 at 12:26 PM.
