bi-amping, passive, active or analog crossover?

[qusp]

good advice so far not that I know much about speaker design and build, but in a general DIY audio sense. having taken on rather ambitious projects early on myself I would recommend saving yourself the pain of trying to go too fast.

also, why not put those mundorfs and higher grade resistors in, bearing in mind you must keep the same type of cap with same ratings. especially if they have used such components themselves in the same type of speaker.

just a thought

[panduro]

Thanks for the schematic, that helps me alot!

I thought bout modding the passive filter, but the again, andrew has has a very good point in doing mods i can return to original.
messing around with the filters wont be good, and i dont think its gonna accomplish what i want, in my book its either original filter with ad on active hipass or full active.

fore know i think ill stick to the passive filters.

thanks everybody for all the answears.

best regards

panduro

[AndrewT]

add the bass amp/speaker and find out how easy/difficult to get that sounding right.
This only requires two active filters and one extra amplifier. You already have 4 so an extra might not be required for the first phase of development. The big advantage to this first stage is that neither your Nautilus nor your 4 existing amplifiers need any modification. It is all external additions.

Once you have experience in setting up a simple, single driver, two filter active arrangement make the decision whether you have the time and resources to tackle a more complex active solution.

If you are interested in some of what is involved in a two driver active filtered speaker, read all about the Tannoy active modification.
How they came up with all that Q & EQ to make the dual concentric driver sound right I don't know. How long it took them I don't know. What I can see is that a lot of skill went into that active project.
http://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy86.htm

[msquared]

panduro - can you please update us with your progress?
I too have B&W 805 and would also like to integrate a subwoofer in the best possible way.
thanks

[askii2]

This appears to be a good way to test the waters . I am a newbie in DIY world. I'll very much appreciate feedback from experts on my ideas.

I plan to upgrade my stereo setup and wish to do the following

Stage 1. Buy a NAD C245 BEE ($600) (4X35W/ch@8Ohm) quad amplifier and KEF Q300 ($550/pair) (40Hz-40kHz+/-3dB, 2.5kHzXover, 8Ohm, bi-wire capable) speakers to start with. Use NAD in dual bridged mode so that it can be used like a stereo power amplifier.

Stage 2. Buy a Behringer CX2310 (2-way analog, 24dB/octave) cross-over. Buy 8" or 10" pair of woofers and build cabinets for them. Mount KEF's on them. Set the cross-over at 200Hz. Configure NAD amp in 4-channel mode and drive KEFs through one pair of outputs and new woofers through another pair.

Questions -
1. I am trying too many things in too low a budget or too low power levels?
2. If there are higher (cost/power) level components which will make a significant improvement.
3. Will making cabinets for 8" or 10" woofers be a difficult task since I'll be assembling my first speaker?
4. What's the easiest way to test the quality of this setup (and correct major issues, if any)? A mic+laptop+frequency analyzer?

Thanks.