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Considering a 3-way active audio setup: Possible within 80,000 rupees?

18th February 2025, 14:01 by Ananth Iyer

You can always get an 8 channel(output) DSP later and make 2 virtual channels, run the rears in differential etc.

BHPian cooldude1988765 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

As the title suggests I am in the process of building an el cheapo 3 way Active Hybrid( will elaborate more about the Hybrid bit) sound system for my CRV.

Will try and explain what I mean by 3 way Active Hybrid and what the need for such a weird setup and get that out of the way first.
But for that to make sense you will need to understand what equipment is going to be used.

Disclaimer: this is the cheapest way(hence the title) to go 3 way active and I have done this before in 2 of my other cars as well and I am only hybridizing the system in my current car and I am fairly confident that it will work.
In my personal opinion I have always preferred having as much control over the sound and have found that even the limited tuning offered on the Head unit is vastly superior to the stock crossovers. You need to know what you are doing while tuning as you will lose the protection offered by your crossovers from sending wrong frequencies to your drivers. Even though I have basic idea of driver limitations I have blown 2 mid woofers and a tweeter over 12 years of having 3 way active sound systems in my cars.

As you might have guessed from the extended intro and disclaimer I intend to only use a Head unit for all sound processing and the head unit in question is the new kid on the block the Pioneer 6650bt.

I have 6 channels of externally amplified power.
I intend to power the 4 mid basses and 1 subwoofer with said 6 channels; and the head unit powers the tweeters itself.

The pioneer 6650 has what is called a 3 way network mode with in built dsp which can control the following:
1. Phase control for all drivers in pairs.
2. Loudness control for 6 drivers individually.
3. LPF for sub
4. LPF and HPF for mid range.
5. HPF for tweeters
6. Slope setting for all the high and low pass filters.

All of the above are apart from the 13 band parametric Equalizer and time alignment as well all for under 20k. And the best part is its not a stand alone DSP it is a complete head unit with a 9inch screen and wireless Android auto.
You might find it hard to believe that I am not an employee of Pioneer but I will sheepishly agree that I am a pioneer fanboy having used pioneer decks ally my life and 3 way active with only a 4 channel amp starting from the Pioneer P80PRS and more recently the Pioneer 5290 both of which had network modes.

I just realised as I am typing this I haven't really clarified by what I mean by 3 way active hybrid yet but for the more seasoned car audio guys: yes I understand I will lose fader control(more on this later).

Now to the long drawn explanation.

To understand what I mean by 3 way active hybrid one needs to understand what a 3 way active system is. I will try to simply this in 2 or 3 sentences.

A 3 way active setup involves 3 distinct types of speakers and will describe the simplest and most commonly used speakers- a pair of tweeters( to produce frequencies 2k-4khz and above) a pair woofers( to produce frequencies 80-100hz to 2k-4k hz) and lastly a subwoofer ( to play frequencies 80-100hz and below)

In the above scenario the woofers are located in the front doors and the tweeters either on the dashboard or A pillar/ sail panel. As you might notice a glaring omission which is speakers in the rear door.

What I intend to do with a 3 way active Hybrid setup is to introduce a pair of 'mid' woofers into the mix for the rear doors. Hope I have got my point across.

So anyway how do I intend to do this ?
1. The HU has 3 RCA preouts to power each of the 3 types of speakers/drivers but also has hi level speaker outs.
2. The Mid range RCA will connect to the 4 channel amp to power the front woofers
3. The low range RCA will connect to the 4 channel amp to power the Sub.
4. Hi level mid range output will connect to the 2 channel amp to power the rear door woofers.
5. The tweeters will run off the High level high range output from the HU and will draw power directly from the HU.

Now on to the equipment list and more importantly pricing.

Please note I am reusing an old 4 channel amplifier and have not included the price of the same however you can still get a decent 4 channel amp to do the job in the same 70k budget as the thread title suggests.

1. HU pioneer 6650 bt - 20k
2. Front stage- morel maximo ultra mk2 components - 10300
3. Rear speakers- morel maximo mk3 2ohm components 5100
4. 4 channel amp - Rainbow Ipaul 4.300 ( this can be easily replaced by a JBL or pioneer 4 channel for 10-12k)
5. 2 channel amp pioneer 7402 - 3500
6. Pioneer damping sheets 20sheets -11000
7. Sub woofer JBL A1500HI -4400
8. Sub box, amplifier wiring kits, head unit dash frame and canbus adapter - about 8k

That totals to about 62.5k which leaves about 17.5k for the installation and a replacement 4 channel amp.

If you stick to a standard 3 way active you can achieve this for about 10k less.

As of now I have procured all the equipment and I am still waiting for some components to arrive. Hopefully I can start the install in March and I will do my best to click as many images as possible.

Now my main query to the audio gurus.

Is it better to split the RCA for the mid range output from the HU. I.e convert 2 channels to 4 using RCA or just stick to the above outlined plan of 1 set with RCA and 1 set with High Level outputs.

Is it ok to install the amps unventilated under the false boot floor? Ideally I would like to avoid putting an amp each under the front seats as it tends to mess up the car cabin in my opinion. Obviously being el cheapo I do not want to custom fabricate an ap rack for the boot so as to not loose too much boot space.

I understand i will lose complete fader control but I cannot do away with the rear speakers as the passengers in the back seat always complain of low volume in my current cars( a simple 3 way active) and I have to crank the volume to unpleasant levels in the front for the rear seaters to enjoy the music.
I intend to tune the sound system as if I have no rear speakers and then slowly raise the gain for the rear speakers to a stage where the rear speakers are barely audible from the drivers seat and then turn it down slightly where I can't hear the rear speakers from the front seat.

At a later date I might add a mini 4 channel amp and use a 4 channel Hi/LO converter to convert the hi level mid and high range outputs from the Head unit and add rear tweeters as well.
The mini 4 channel will power the 4 tweeters and it will get its input from the RCA for front tweets and hi level converted RCA for the rear tweets.
I will take a call on the amp for tweets once stage 1 of the install is complete and if I feel the need for rear tweeters. If I feel I don't need the rear tweets and I miss the fader control I can convert the rear mid range from Hi level to RCA using a hi/lo convertor and use a RCA driven remote gain knob to essentially increase or decrease the rear speaker volume by way of a separate physical knob.

I have also tried to use speakers from the same family in all doors to minimise the sound signature differences and have decided to us only the woofers from the component speakers in the rear with the belief that stand alone mid woofers would probably do a better job than coaxials.

The reason for choosing morel speakers over any other brands available in similar price range is that I currently use a pair in one of my other cars and really like that the tweeter is not harsh unlike some of the other entry level mid range jbl, focal, infinity speakers that I have heard before. Also it is the only brand for which I could find complete specifications for the drivers such as the on and off axis response curves frequency response fs, sensitivity etc.

I had briefly explored the idea of using raw drivers by brands such as peerless, dayton, vifa, sb acoustics etc. but upon learning about the costs of said speakers in India, I dropped the plan. In fact I did try to coax some my friends and family to carry the speakers for me from the USA where for 250USD one can get 4mids and 2 tweeters of very high quality but when said equipment weighs about 25kg most of them stopped taking my calls till they reached India

Here's what BHPian viXit had to say on the matter:

My two cents, don’t do it.
Level matching a high level output with a low level output is a pain. And the response varies highly.
If anything, run your rear speakers off the head unit with some high efficiency low ohm speakers.
Just use the 6rcas for front tweets, front mids and subwoofer.
The high level outs can serve the rear speakers.
You can always get an 8 channel(output) DSP later and make 2 virtual channels, run the rears in differential etc.
I assumed you mean 3way with midrange when you said it.
Pioneers network mode will not have separate tuning setting for the hi level tweeters and low level RCAs. I owned a pioneer head unit and in network mode its tweets mids and sub. And in the other. It’s front rear and subwoofer
You can’t get both and make your head unit output 8channels of tunable audio.
What you can do is send full range to the first two channels, power the tweeters from the amp, use the HPF on the amp to protect your tweeters.
Then the full range can go to your mid bass with a passive crossover.
Or the other way around.
I’m running a 6 channel helix ,
2 active tweeters,
2 active midBASS
2 channels for sub
Rear speakers are not connected to my DSP. Running hi level. I don’t notice the difference when I stream directly to my DSP and the rear speakers are silent.