Speaker Crossover and Amp

[Ophanim]

I know this is Home theater, but I figure this is basically the same thing because it deals with audio.

I'm a DJ and I am currently running two loudspeakers (which are powered) and I was wanting to add two subwoofers to fill in the low end gap I'm hearing while I mix.

 

Specifically these speakers and this amp. http://a.co/0Ad7Lrz, http://a.co/2tKFH7M

 

My initial thing is, someone in the question and answers section said that adding a crossover to these speakers will add some nice boost to the sound from the woofers.

Does the amp have a crossover? I know the speakers do not. If so, how does it work? If not, do I really need one? Should I look at a different amp? I am not big of an audiophile, I just really enjoy mixing music.

 

Any help on how to set this up would be great.

[Leonard]

The amp has a cutoff point but if what i feel you want as i assume you are playing in direct mode you want a mini dsp which can help you get gain and clarity but without clipping the amp.

[SSL]

Looks like the amp has an infrasound low-pass filter that can be set to 30 or 50 Hz. I'm guessing that is below the -3dB point of your speakers, but it would be better than nothing at all.

 

Basically, a crossover will give you more potential headroom by reducing the excursion of the speakers below the limit of their useful output range.

[Ophanim]

Makes sense.

 

I have never ran a passive system before so I am still new to this. I know my main board I connect my XLR cables to the powered loud speakers I have, and then from the board an RCA to 3.5mm into my laptop. This gives me the sound I want with the loudspeakers. How would I go about connecting the subs to this system?

The back of the Subs have the positive and negative, But also have the 1/4 inch cable and the XLR (I think?) 

Would I connect the Positive and negative respectively to both subs, and an xlr to both? And then an audio jack from the amp to my board?

 

Sorry if that is confusing.

[anothertom]

23 hours ago, SSL said:

Looks like the amp has an infrasound low-pass filter that can be set to 30 or 50 Hz. I'm guessing that is below the -3dB point of your speakers, but it would be better than nothing at all.

 

Basically, a crossover will give you more potential headroom by reducing the excursion of the speakers below the limit of their useful output range.

Not quite. The amp has a switchable low cut (high pass) filter at either 35 or 50 Hz. So yes it gives more headroom, but by removing the frequencies you want to send to the sub.

 

@Ophanim since you've got powered speakers (which presumably don't have the option of a low cut filter built in) and are looking to add passive subs you need an active crossover to separate the different frequency bands and send them to the different speakers/amp, and also to sum both sides to output a mono sub signal.

 

The less proper way would be to split the output from your mixer, one into the powered speakers the other through an EQ with a low pass to the amp for the subs.

 

The more proper way to do it would be a BSS soundweb/ void digidrive /dbx driverack to properly process the stereo signal and distribute it properly. This starts to become more complex but allows better control over each part of the system.

 

As for connecting the subs, they have terminals, speaker jack and NL2 connectors. Do not use a normal instrument jack cable. Depending on the power of the amplifier and specs of the subs you would either power one from each channel of the amp or link through from one to the other off of one channel.

[SSL]

3 hours ago, anothertom said:

Not quite. The amp has a switchable low cut (high pass) filter at either 35 or 50 Hz. So yes it gives more headroom, but by removing the frequencies you want to send to the sub.

 

@Ophanim since you've got powered speakers (which presumably don't have the option of a low cut filter built in) and are looking to add passive subs you need an active crossover to separate the different frequency bands and send them to the different speakers/amp, and also to sum both sides to output a mono sub signal.

 

The less proper way would be to split the output from your mixer, one into the powered speakers the other through an EQ with a low pass to the amp for the subs.

 

The more proper way to do it would be a BSS soundweb/ void digidrive /dbx driverack to properly process the stereo signal and distribute it properly. This starts to become more complex but allows better control over each part of the system.

 

As for connecting the subs, they have terminals, speaker jack and NL2 connectors. Do not use a normal instrument jack cable. Depending on the power of the amplifier and specs of the subs you would either power one from each channel of the amp or link through from one to the other off of one channel.

 

Oops. I read it as passive speakers, amp, powered subs.

[Ahoy Hoy]

On 5/3/2017 at 4:34 AM, Ophanim said:

I know this is Home theater, but I figure this is basically the same thing because it deals with audio.

I'm a DJ and I am currently running two loudspeakers (which are powered) and I was wanting to add two subwoofers to fill in the low end gap I'm hearing while I mix.

 

Specifically these speakers and this amp. http://a.co/0Ad7Lrz, http://a.co/2tKFH7M

 

My initial thing is, someone in the question and answers section said that adding a crossover to these speakers will add some nice boost to the sound from the woofers.

Does the amp have a crossover? I know the speakers do not. If so, how does it work? If not, do I really need one? Should I look at a different amp? I am not big of an audiophile, I just really enjoy mixing music.

 

Any help on how to set this up would be great.

The amps do not have a crossover.
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Super-X-High-Precision-Crossover-Subwoofer/dp/B0002Z82LM/ref=sr_1_2?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1494282372&sr=1-2&keywords=crossover
Thats the kind of thing you want. You plug the output from your mixer into the cross over. You then send audio to the top speakers and another conection to the subs. You use the knobs on the front to set the frequncy you want to send to each speaker.