Help to understand digital crossovers

[sreten]

Hi,

The only difference between this thread and the last one is its the
same question but a different suggested active crossover, which
has buckets of threads covering its capabilities, see those .......

/sreten.

[AuroraB]

As a part time sound tech for various conferences, vaudevilles and amateur concerts, as well as 20 yrs chief techie for a community radio station, I've already been inside a fair amount of Behringer boxes. I was just wondering about the actual sound quality of the DCX....lot's of people seems to be using it for HiFi...

[MaVo]

Originally posted by AuroraB
I was just wondering about the actual sound quality of the DCX....lot's of people seems to be using it for HiFi...

Thats the question and its answer in one sentence

[pjpoes]

Originally posted by AuroraB
As a part time sound tech for various conferences, vaudevilles and amateur concerts, as well as 20 yrs chief techie for a community radio station, I've already been inside a fair amount of Behringer boxes. I was just wondering about the actual sound quality of the DCX....lot's of people seems to be using it for HiFi...

Too much gain, too much hiss, too much distortion, too low a slew rate. That is my opinion on the piece for home use. While a lot of people use it in home audio, I think very few use it correctly. I know many an "audiophile" who has bought one, praised it, only to put it aside (I'm included in this), as the trade-offs between alternative methods end up being too great. I've already beaten this poor horse, as Serten has said, its been covered before, recently for that matter. I posted extensive graphs showing the problems with trying to simply implement an electronic crossover with real world speakers. I've said my piece on the volume issue, which I consider a very major issue.

My answer to the question is, If you need to start this thread, then the answer is No. Not, No it can't be done, but No, it will not work for you as you hope. Don't be discouraged by that, you can take it as a challenge to get them up and working correctly. However, if your hope is that, you make a few quick adjustments, drop it in, and suddenly have sound equal to speakers that cost ten times as much, its simply not going to happen. In fact, the sound will probably be worse until you do finally get it dialed in right, and by that time, you might as well have bought better speakers to begin with.

[gni]

This is DIY. . . .have fun and learn. I took my JBLs apart and did the
same thing years ago. Did it sound different. . .yes. . .did it sound better. . .
that's subjective. A good x-over can control the crossover frequency
for both high and low as two different frequencies,
slope and phase are a must. Speakers are less than idea and passive
crossovers are used to compensate for this. . . it is a compromise. . .

With the electronic crossover (analog or digital) it will require similar
methods to produce the same output. . .it will still be a compromise. .
For a start select a crossover point based on the nominal impedance
of the speaker and cap value for the tweeter. . . it will be wise to
install a larger value capacitor to protect the tweeter from unintentional
lows from reaching the tweeter. . . a 10 microfarad for 8 ohms will
make a 6dB at 1000 Hz. . .a $5 investment might save your tweeters.



But one that is easy to change. . . the electronic crossover won't
fix the impedance rise that a zobel will. You will need a good parametric
eq to compensate electronically for what the zobel will do.

Most less expensive speakers will only have the simple 6dB passive
crossovers. . .easy to play with. . .

DO IT. . .HAVE FUN. . .remember DO IT YOURSELF. . . .are there
pitfalls. . .yes. . . but without the will to experiment there is no
advancement. . .

Take notes and pictures and post them. . . a picture is worth a
thousand words.

[pjpoes]

parametric eq wont impact the impedance rise, just its subsequent effect on the response. Nothing wrong with adding a zobel and an active crossover.

[SaSi]

I think that the one serious setback in such an "adventure" is knowing what the actual parameters are to feed to the active crossover.

Let's just forget the DCX for a moment.

Even if someone is competent to design an analog active filter from scratch, they should know the design parameters and they are many more issues than crossover points and slope.

As I see it - and I am planning to venture in this sometime in the near future - working with an active crossover requires a very good understanding of the functionality. Filter types, parameters and equalization.

It also requires a very good understanding of the speaker drivers and the cabinets to drive.

Finally, it requires a means of measurement to get a feedback of how each different parameter affects the performance.

The idea behind an active xover like the DCX is versatility, speed and experimentation.

In the end, once can reach a set of filters that perform best.

Now, whether to leave that to the DCX for actual listening or use the end result to design an analog phase corrected active xover is something I plan to find out myself.

BTW, I think the $450 price is rather steep. I believe the price for a new unit would be in the $200 ~$250 range. At least that is how much such boxes go for BIN on ebay.