Interesting crossover (potential) problem

[cersepn]

i just 'finished' my first diy speaker project, but it didn't turn out as expected. i went with the zaph zrt 2-way kit from madisound, with pre-assembled crossovers. After hooking everything up, there was only sound coming from the tweeter, but no sound at all coming from both speakers' woofers. Like the XO wasn't working.

I'm using an external XO box.


All wiring is either canare quad 4s8 / 4s11. Each speaker is connected to the XO box by 4 pole speakons with female speakon (2m) cables connecting them together. Tweeter terminals have quick connects; woofer terminals are soldered.

I was wondering if it could be my poor soldering skills that caused a cold joint somewhere, but i checked all the joints at least 9 times.

I have a feeling i wired up the crossover connections wrongly. I sure hope it is, or else i wouldn't know what else to do. Can anyone take a look and tell me what i'm doing wrongly please? I really appreciate any help i can get. Hopefully i didn't blow up a woofer or something

[DrDyna]

Can you grab a picture of the whole crossover showing where all the wires are soldered?

Also, just so I understand what you've done, you have a pair of binding posts connected to the input and a 4 pole Neutrik connector that goes from your external XO box to the speaker cabinet?

[cersepn]

thanks for the heads up. i updated the first post to show the picture

[DrDyna]

I noticed that in the instructions, it tells you to connect the positive lead going to the woofer to that far right terminal on the low pass board, but on the board, it looks as though the label that says W+ is the one that has the coil soldered to it.

Perhaps try moving the woofer + to the connector labeled W+ on the board.

You can examine that board to see if that's how it's wired, that coil should be in series with the positive terminal, between IN+ and W+ and that capacitor should be in parallel across the W+ and COM.

Edit: I'm also quite jealous of your new speakers

[cersepn]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

It suddenly dawned upon me what else could be wrong.. is that wire supposed to be there bridging the woofer + and - ?!

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by cersepn

Thanks for all the suggestions!

It suddenly dawned upon me what else could be wrong.. is that wire supposed to be there bridging the woofer + and - ?!

Yes, they have it wired correctly, that bridge is there so that the capacitor can be either in or out of the circuit.

Solder your woofer + connection where I've placed the arrow in your picture and it should work beautifully.

Edit: You might want to tell Madisound that their instructions are incorrect as well!

[DrDyna]

Do they work yet?

[DrDyna]

Something tells me he's listening to them now with a nice glass of red

[cersepn]

Alright, everything is working now. But the bass is really really anemic, like there's nothing <100 hz.

Could it be because i
1) went with the sealed 20 litre design
2) have too much rockwool stuffing

3) requested madisound to change the L10 inductor from 2.7 mH to 2.0 mH (not sure if they really did)
4) need time for the woofer to break in. Although i don't believe in the usual "necessary" break-in period for most audio gear (especially cables), but there seems to be quite some truth to woofers needing break in. Though i'm not certain the amount of bass will change *that* drastically after breaking in

any thoughts?

[DrDyna]

The drivers definitely do need breaking in, and in the case of that woofer, after the break in period, it'll probably get down a little lower. It won't be drastic, but it'll change.

The sealed 20L will probably be a little thinner in the bass than the larger ones, smaller sealed cabinets are generally what you'd select if you had a couple of subs to use.