augmentation stands.....

[stuman]

first thing sorry about the title, it was the first thing that came to mind.

ok first things first im a relative noobie on here so im sorry if im being silly or asking silly questions.

i have a pair of monitor audio radius r90 as my main speakers, i really like the sound but the lower octaves really lack in depth. so my question really stands as would it be easy to create speaker stands with an additional 6.5" - 7" woofer to fill the bottom end all run from the speaker outs of my amp? or should i just look at putting a sub into the setup and be done?

cheers guys.

[sdclc126]

For a third driver in the system you will need to design a crossover network - this will now be a 3-way speaker and you would need to know a lot of stuff to do it right.

Easiest solution is to do an active sub crossed at 80 Hz or below. You can still build the stands & build the sub into one of them, as long as you can get the proper volume, or have it as a separate unit.

Or - be a little more ambitious and do a stereo sub set-up in each base - a little more flexibility with crossover point as you have better imaging with one sub for each channel.

[stuman]

ok so how hard are 3 way crossovers to get right i mean could i just recreate the current crossover and use the current crossover points and add a 3 layer to it just to filter off the high frequancies from the signal for the woofers? are 2way vs 3 way really that differant?

also, would changing out the componants for better quality ones improve change the sound greatly? i think the componants used are on the cheap side so if i get to the point of building my own would i see an improvement apart from just the extra bass extension??

cheers. stu

[sdclc126]

"ok so how hard are 3 way crossovers to get right"

Hard. You need software, for one. You also need to know the driver parameters and the crossover scheme of the existing speaker.

"could i just recreate the current crossover and use the current crossover points and add a 3 layer to it just to filter off the high frequancies from the signal for the woofers?"

Sounds like you're talking about a 2.5-way design, which is probaly doable, but you really need the second woofer to be very similar to the first - most people use identical. You leave the existing crossover alone and put an inductor (at the least) in series with the .5 woofer. But you will still be doing a lot of guessing here. If you're not concerned with perfection then you'll probably be satisfied with the results - the trick will be choosing an appropriate woofer.

"are 2way vs 3 way really that differant?"

Well, yes!

"also, would changing out the componants for better quality ones improve change the sound greatly?"

In a word, no. But you'll get as many opinions on this topic as there are members on this forum. If there are electrolytic capacitors in the XO you might change them out for polypropylene, which are a lot more expensive especially at the larger values - the real advantage here is longenvity and retention of values over time - electrolytics tend to degrade whereas polys are more durable and their performance remains pretty much constant over long periods of time.

Other than that I can say that you will not be able to hear a performance difference by swapping out components - crossover design itself plays a far larger role in the sound quality of the speaker.

[Salas]

There are 6X9 and QWTL approach that can give a tall slim stand with an already drooping response in the mids, that can be helped out with just a single iron core coil. They can blend with filterless mains.

Tangband 6X9

[stuman]

Originally posted by sdclc126
"ok so how hard are 3 way crossovers to get right"

Hard. You need software, for one. You also need to know the driver parameters and the crossover scheme of the existing speaker.

"could i just recreate the current crossover and use the current crossover points and add a 3 layer to it just to filter off the high frequancies from the signal for the woofers?"

Sounds like you're talking about a 2.5-way design, which is probaly doable, but you really need the second woofer to be very similar to the first - most people use identical. You leave the existing crossover alone and put an inductor (at the least) in series with the .5 woofer. But you will still be doing a lot of guessing here. If you're not concerned with perfection then you'll probably be satisfied with the results - the trick will be choosing an appropriate woofer.

"are 2way vs 3 way really that differant?"

Well, yes!

"also, would changing out the componants for better quality ones improve change the sound greatly?"

In a word, no. But you'll get as many opinions on this topic as there are members on this forum. If there are electrolytic capacitors in the XO you might change them out for polypropylene, which are a lot more expensive especially at the larger values - the real advantage here is longenvity and retention of values over time - electrolytics tend to degrade whereas polys are more durable and their performance remains pretty much constant over long periods of time.

Other than that I can say that you will not be able to hear a performance difference by swapping out components - crossover design itself plays a far larger role in the sound quality of the speaker.

ok, thanks for the info, so this software needed for the 3way crossover is it free? if not howmuch? thanks for the info so far.

stu