Is 120hz crossover point ok?

[shortyg83 10+ year member]

So I have a Tacoma using the stock head unit. My speakers are focal and my speaker amp is an Audio Control ACM-4.300. The HPF settings are 80,bypass,120. I previously had it at bypass but I am adding a subwoofer.
For this install I added the Skar Ske2loc active converter as opposed to what I did previously which was use the amps high level in.
Adding this LOC had a very unexpected effect. The speakers sounded much better and the bass produced from them was quite louder. I moved the HPF to 80 and the bass was still very loud and while it was clean I could hear some vibration in my doors. I don't want to go through and try and deaden everything. So I changed the HPF to 120hz. This removed almost all bass from the speakers but they sound very good and can get quite loud now without any distortion.
My subwoofer comes tomorrow. 10" JL TW3 shallow subwoofer in a sealed box. My plan is to run the LPF at 120hz.

My question is, can this sub handle the 120hz without getting muddy? Or should I go back and change bothe the HPF and LPF to 80hz?

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[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

You will have to wait and listen to it to know. Too many variables in the cars acoustics for anyone to do more than just guess.
You also don’t have to match the crossover frequencies. In my last car, what sounded best was 75hz low pass on the sub and 90hz high pass on the door speakers.
You need to realize that the crossover is not a square wall, but a slope. The 120hz high pass filter will play sound below 120hz. Just the farther below 120 it goes the quieter it gets.

 

[SlugButter]

I recently had my midbass speakers stolen from my 3 way active setup, so until I bought new speakers I was running my sub up LPF at 125 HZ and my midrange HPF at 125 to play low volume music still. It sounded decent. My midbass speakers play much better detailed midbass than the sub does, so I did notice a degradation in sound quality on some songs for sure, but I’d say it would still sound better than a bunch of door rattling. I put my midbass in sealed pods just because of that very issue. Even with a sound deadened door, my door lock, door handle, window and lock buttons, etc. would all rattle. The sealed pod solved it.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

My question is, can this sub handle the 120hz without getting muddy? Or should I go back and change bothe the HPF and LPF to 80hz?

I noticed that JL subs tend to play well into the midbass spectrum. To me they sound best at 80Hz and lower as opposed to my cheaper subs, which sound better at 80Hz and above.

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

So many variables.

Currently my front sub is playing 25-115hz my midbass are 60-2500
And tweeters are 2500 and up.

The thing is kick drums are 50-90hz which is the hardest range to get right in a car.

My suggestion is keep everything at 80hz.

The higher the frequency the easier it is for a speaker to be localized by the brain.

This is what makes a proper 3way front so powerful. You can cross low enough that the speakers don't beam and stay omnidirectional. Tweeters are unavoidably directional but our ears lose sensitivity around the point they become directional. But if you tweeters are aimed at listener you will obviously still pick up more top end detail.

10 inch Subs on the otherhand beam very low 675hz but they don't play that high either.

While you might not have issue with beaming/directionality you might have issue with the drivers le being too high meaning they will roll off early or intermodular distortion. Which is when the driver is trying to play to frequencies at the same time.

This is pretty common for subs and midbass drivers trying to cover too wide a bandwidth.

The easiest fix to that issue is narrowing the bandwidth. Either by cutting the top end or bottom end.

Just think that sub is trying to stop a 150g cone moving 30hz and suddenly make it move 120hz.

This isn't exactly how speakers work as it's an over simplification but it gives you an idea of what is causing certain issues while you are testing around.

 

[Doxquzme Premium Member]

I want to rip everything apart again, again, and again to fix all the installation issues that are causing me to have to set the speaker x-overs differently than they should be - said nobody ever! I hear ya buddy!

Take a little time, isolate the rattles, and try to correct them so you can set the x-overs to try and smoothly blend/integrate with the rest of the system. Unless you actually prefer the subs trying to play up to that frequency, you're always going to wonder, what if. You don't have to get crazy, just go out to YT and watch vids on deadening, check out your options from Resonix or others, and see what can be done to minimize the issues with the installation and results. At the end of the day, you can settle for the sound being "okay" or fix the actual problem and enjoy what you spent $$ to fully enjoy. If after tinkering with the settings you're content, great!

 

[HardofWhoring]

FYI, the LOC is most likely sending out a signal with increased voltage compared to how it was setup before the loc. So you increased the power.
Does your head unit have RCA outputs? How was the amp setup before the LOC? What about the gain on the amp. Do you know who set it or how?
If you have a multimeter you can do this on the amp, and you can KNOW how much wattage you have going to them.

You can go over RMS, but personally, this is something people should want to know where they have it.


The frequency range is 24-200hz. 120 is no problem. You can set it on different types of music and see if you're missing anything.

JL Audio 10TW3-D4

Shallow-mount 10" subwoofer with dual 4-ohm voice coils

www.crutchfield.com

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

play this up loud. if 80hz is too low, raise it

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

120hz is doable. Ultimately, you just have to try both and see which sounds better to you.

 

[mclsound 10+ year member]

I usually cross at 80hz
And as a drummer
The meaty end of a kick is 40hz..like bands such as Metallica
50hz is a U2 kick