A couple ?'s about the CL-61A-25 Pro components

[SQ Monte]

I'm about to install my system in my 04 Monte Carlo and have a few questions about these components.

#1 The spec'd rms rating for them is 150 watts, is that per side or for the set?

#2 I would like to ditch my rear fill if at all possible but I know in order to pull that off i'm gonna have to have a hell of a front stage.

The factory mounting locations for the front speakers is nice so now it becomes about getting them loud enough. I am going to be running them off a HiFonics ZXi4610 that does:
* 4 ohms: 85 watts x 4 chan.
* 2 ohms: 170 watts x 4 chan.
* Bridged, 4 ohms: 340 watts x 2 chan.

I have a feeling running them off 85 watts rms each side isn't going to be loud enough to balance out the sound when I'll be running my subs off 1000 watts rms.

My deck, P880-PRS, has the ability to run 3-way active and that's the route I want to go so what would be the best way to go about this?

A.) Run each mid and tweet on it's own channel off the amp, giving each one 85 watts rms?

B.) Bridge each side to the amp so each side gets 340 watts rms?

It was suggested to me by a tech at a reputable car audio manufacturer that I go with option B but I just want to make sure that it's ok before I proceed.

[Steve]

First. What mid range do you plan to run and do you have an amp for that or which amp will you use? You will need a total of 6 channels to run 3 way. Also have you already bought this set of speakers? If you have them and want to run have it hooked up until you buy a mid range then run it bridged until you get ready to run 3 way active. Now be careful because you will NOT need the full 340w rms. I would say 150w rms per side at the most will be enough.

But if you could please answer what mid range you want to use and what other amp will be used in your 3 way set-up I can help you more as far as that goes.

[SQ Monte]

First. What mid range do you plan to run and do you have an amp for that or which amp will you use? You will need a total of 6 channels to run 3 way. Also have you already bought this set of speakers? If you have them and want to run have it hooked up until you buy a mid range then run it bridged until you get ready to run 3 way active. Now be careful because you will NOT need the full 340w rms. I would say 150w rms per side at the most will be enough.

But if you could please answer what mid range you want to use and what other amp will be used in your 3 way set-up I can help you more as far as that goes.I can't believe I left out such important info, my bad.

Mids/highs are CDT Audio CL-61A-25 Pro and I already have them, BNIB.

The amp I'm going to run them with is a HiFonics ZXi6406, also BNIB.

I don't have any plans to buy a midbass so I can just run it 2 way active, right?

If I can get away with running about 150 watts rms per side, would it be feasable to run all 4ch of that amp to the mids/highs, 1ch per tweet, 1ch per mid? In a setup that way I could get 170 watts rms to each side. Is that possible or am I grasping at straws?

[Steve]

Yes you can run it 2 way active. You abviously wont use the crossovers with them and you will need to run each speaker to its own channel so 1 tweet on ch1 the other on ch2. One mid on ch3 the other on ch4. Then each speaker will have 85w rms available to them. On the tweeters I would be careful with the gain and wouldn't feed it the full 85w. I have the CDT ES-010 in my car right now and I think I am sending it 40w rms at the very most and it gets loud. I would set the tweeter to play at 3kHz and up. For the mid I am not sure what it is able to play down to or it's resonance frequency. I would start at 80z and see how that works and set it to play from 80hz or whatever you find it can play down to cleanly up to 3k.

Now you can do 3 way with the same amp. You will need to run the mid range off the channel 1 and 2 and in line you will wire the tweeter to and add a capacitor which will filter out the lower frequencies. So that can be an opstion if you wanted to do that.

[pjhabit]

The 880 is capable of 3 way active. Meaning you can actively cross the tweets (1), mids (2) & sub(s) (3) from the HU.

Unless you have a good understanding of x/over points, slopes, phase relationships & level matching, I'd suggests option B). For a novice, active can be extremely frustrating. As long as you set your gains conservatively & use common sense w/ the volume controls, option B) will work just fine.

[SQ Monte]

Yes you can run it 2 way active. You abviously wont use the crossovers with them and you will need to run each speaker to its own channel so 1 tweet on ch1 the other on ch2. One mid on ch3 the other on ch4. Then each speaker will have 85w rms available to them. On the tweeters I would be careful with the gain and wouldn't feed it the full 85w.Cool, that's how I'll do it then.

I have the CDT ES-010 in my car right now and I think I am sending it 40w rms at the very most and it gets loud. I would set the tweeter to play at 3kHz and up. For the mid I am not sure what it is able to play down to or it's resonance frequency. I would start at 80z and see how that works and set it to play from 80hz or whatever you find it can play down to cleanly up to 3k.Do you have rear fill? How much power are you running to your subs? I just want to make sure that my front stage is solid and not overpowered by the subs since i'm trying to get rid of my 6x9's in the back. I'm going to seal off the trunk from the cabin and the 6x9 openings are going to be the ports that allow the bass to enter. Thanks for the tips on xover settings, I'll keep them in mind.

The 880 is capable of 3 way active. Meaning you can actively cross the tweets (1), mids (2) & sub(s) (3) from the HU.That was the impression I got from the guy mentioned in my first post so with your confirmation that's exactly how i'm gonna do it.

Unless you have a good understanding of x/over points, slopes, phase relationships & level matching, I'd suggests option B). For a novice, active can be extremely frustrating. As long as you set your gains conservatively & use common sense w/ the volume controls, option B) will work just fine.I'm definitely a novice when it comes to active xover networks, but i've been installing my own systems for over 15 years now so all the tuning and what not that goes along with it isn't new to me. I'm pretty confident I can get it sounding right. This head unit is just the most advanced, feature packed deck i've ever owned and I hope it lives up to it's billing.

[Steve]

I do not have rear fill. I have 600w rms for my subs currently but will have 1000w soon. Active can be frustrating and will take more time to tune and sound right but in the long run will sound A LOT better. I say keep it active and play with it and do some reading. You can get info all over the internet. Also look into reading the car stereo cookbook. I read it and it has some useful info.

[SQ Monte]

I do not have rear fill. I have 600w rms for my subs currently but will have 1000w soon. Active can be frustrating and will take more time to tune and sound right but in the long run will sound A LOT better. I say keep it active and play with it and do some reading. You can get info all over the internet. Also look into reading the car stereo cookbook. I read it and it has some useful info.Nice. I've been dealing with my super budget system for the better part of 3yrs now so I'll have no problem with the time it'll take to get it dialed in. I've proven to myself that I have patience since it's taken about 2yrs to piece my system together. You're the second person to suggest the Car Audio Cookbook, I may have to invest in a copy, unless I can get it online:cool:

The other person who had good things to say about that book is the one and only, Steve Meade.

[pjhabit]

As Steve had mentioned, you have plenty of power for those tweets. So I'd keep the gains @ a minimum & use the gain for the mids to level match. Depending on your install, I'd look to BP the mids/tweets in the 2.5-4.5 kHz range. ie, Crossing on the lower side will improve off-axis response (aka beaming) & possibly improve staging, in less than ideal door locations. Then after you're content w/ those settings/level adjustments you'll want to adjust the phase relationships between the drivers (any combination of polarities can result in 'absolute' phase, so test them all). When everything is done correctly, the T/A & EQ capabilities of the 880 won't need to work quite as hard.
Good luck.

[SQ Monte]

As Steve had mentioned, you have plenty of power for those tweets. So I'd keep the gains @ a minimum & use the gain for the mids to level match. Depending on your install, I'd look to BP the mids/tweets in the 2.5-4.5 kHz range. ie, Crossing on the lower side will improve off-axis response (aka beaming) & possibly improve staging, in less than ideal door locations. Then after you're content w/ those settings/level adjustments you'll want to adjust the phase relationships between the drivers (any combination of polarities can result in 'absolute' phase, so test them all). When everything is done correctly, the T/A & EQ capabilities of the 880 won't need to work quite as hard.
Good luck.Very good. Nice to know my amp choice was pretty well matched to my speakers. Thanks for the tips on tuning, although I've been doing my systems for a long time i'm not to where I think I know it all and have nothing more to learn. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me guys, I appreciate it.