2 way monitor question

[Mr Malty]

Hi All,

Looking at 2 way monitor using the illuminator 7 Be kit from madisound. In doing some research, I came accross the Fritz illumintor 7 Be speaker using Acoustic Reality Series crossover.

Any thoughts on the advantages of either crossover type?

Here is the kit with the crossover I am looking at-
The Madisound Speaker Store

Here is the Fritz fully built speaker using the AR crossover-
Fritz Carbon 7 Technical Specifications

Thanks!

 

[Mr Malty]

Anyone?

 

[Jay1111]

It's impossible to compare without the Fritz speaker showing all the measured data that the NADA kit shows.

The performance shown for the NADA doesnt look very special honestly... Crossover point is pretty high given the capability of the tweeter, which leads to the typical midrange bloom of a 7" 2 way.

Jeff B's Kairos cost 1/2 while still using top end drivers, and is implemented far better

Kairos (Pair)

 

[speakerdoctor]

You seem to be asking for opinions on parallel vs series crossovers. Many opinions have been rendered here in other threads. Do a search and you'll find hundreds of posts on the subject.
IMO, the series xo is a nice design with less parts than a parallel. IMO (again) less parts usually yields better sound. However, that's MY opinion. The xo's shown at Madisound look surprisingly complex for dealing with such high end drivers that should exhibit reasonably flat response across their passband, thus necessitating simpler xo.
Instead of comparing apples to oranges here, the two designs are so similar, you're comparing macintosh with delicious apples.
People's subjective opinions aren't worth much. If you want to take a poll (which I suggest you do) of SXO vs Parallel, that might answer your question and save you a lot of thread searching and hours of reading thru posts.

 

[fatmarley]

You wont go wrong with the Jeff Bagby kit. His speakers always go down well at shows and those drivers are supposed to be top notch.

 

[system7]

Troels Gravesen has something to say about crossovers here: crossovers

Below you can see the response from a series crossover my visitor had found on the web and which was recommended as a generally applicable crossover. Shame on whoever launched a load of crap like this! It's a disaster! Two C220 and two C23 Accuton drivers are serious money and throwing in some phantasy web-nonsense like this is a total waste of money.

I don't think he rates the AR-SXO crossover very highly.

More interesting are two builds Troels did with your Scanspeak 18WU/4741T00 driver, or its 8 ohm stablemate in the second case.

Illumina-66
Illuminator-Monitor

There do seem to be some time-alignment issues with the 7" bass, 1" tweeter that he feels need addressing either with a sloped baffle or the crossover. Without doing that, it seems a bit of a waste of exceptional drivers to me.

 

[Mr Malty]

Thanks all. I read all the pages on the SB Acoustics thread and strongly considered that kit. Kudos to Jeff and Joachim on great work. That being said, I am drawn to the illuminator kit with the Be tweeter.

I am not sure which way I will go. I am going to sell off my Revel Studio speakers and hate to take a step back in sound. The listening room in my new house will be smaller

It sounds like one setup has a urban legend crossover while the other is not maximizing the drivers...maybe Jeff will make a setup for these drivers

 

[LineSource]

Mr Malty,

If you already plan to use stands with your 2-way design, you should also give some consideration to a 3-way tower speaker. Same floor space. A sexy cabinet is often more attractive than a simple stand.

Yes, a 3-way is more complicated, but it also allows using a smaller diameter midrange offering lower Mms and superior polar response, which is a good marriage partner to a Be tweeter's high'ish xover frequency.

Usher speakers now offer both Be tweeter and midrange in a sexy cabinet.