Use an av receiver's zone 2 feature as active crossover?

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I've been looking around and reading up on building my first speakers and reading about active crossovers. I'm a total newbie so excuse my naivety however while reading about av receiver's I noticed some have a zone 2 facility as well as being able to set crossover points on all there channels. Could I just use the the zone 2 and the front l/r channels giving me 4 channels to run the tweeter and mids separately then use its audyssey mic to eq your required freq response? You can pick up s/h av receiver's really cheap this seems like a easy budget friendly active crossover and amplification solution. Am I missing something here? Because I can not find any threads or articles online on the topic so its very possible Im talking hot air!
 
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Note that some receivers of a few years back actually included option for full DSP digital XO and bi-amping of front mains, while others allow for passive bi-amping. In both cases one of the pairs of channels assignable for front surround effects are sacrificed.

My Onkyo TX NR818 (circa 2014?) can do both, but I forget whether it's front height or width that was lost. Not as flexible in terms of XO points or slopes compared to dedicated outboard active XO such as Behringers, et al, or DSP such as miniDSP.

Of course with the latest bandwagon of Atmos being fully populated by most mainstream manufactures from the middle of their line offerings up, it's likely gonna be hard to find new models with either passive or fully active bi-amping functionality. This lack of total flexibility is the price we pay for the huge bang for the buck in terms of convenience and functionality in one box - something at which after 50yrs in this hobby I still quite amazed.

Without some type of HP filtering in place upstream, I'd imagine the Audyssey test signals would make pretty short work of damaging your tweeters.
 
Note that some receivers of a few years back actually included option for full DSP digital XO and bi-amping of front mains, while others allow for passive bi-amping. In both cases one of the pairs of channels assignable for front surround effects are sacrificed.

My Onkyo TX NR818 (circa 2014?) can do both, but I forget whether it's front height or width that was lost. Not as flexible in terms of XO points or slopes compared to dedicated outboard active XO such as Behringers, et al, or DSP such as miniDSP.

Of course with the latest bandwagon of Atmos being fully populated by most mainstream manufactures from the middle of their line offerings up, it's likely gonna be hard to find new models with either passive or fully active bi-amping functionality. This lack of total flexibility is the price we pay for the huge bang for the buck in terms of convenience and functionality in one box - something at which after 50yrs in this hobby I still quite amazed.

Without some type of HP filtering in place upstream, I'd imagine the Audyssey test signals would make pretty short work of damaging your tweeters.

OK thank you I'll back to my original plan of the Behringer.
 
Do you have an existing HT receiver, or are you still window shopping at this point?

Most major makers will have models starting perhaps half way up their line with line outs for both secondary zones and all of the channels in the main surround set-up. In the case of my Onkyo mentioned above, there's a total of 15 RCA line outputs for every foreseeable combination of surround channel allocations and 2 secondary zones. Does make for very interesting rat's nest of cables when you use combinations of internal and outboard amps - it's always dark back there.
 
frugal-phile™
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My Onkyo TX NR818...

What Chris did not mention that using the active bi-amp facility in this HT receiver worked well to drive both our big MTM and Tysen V2 WAW (Woofer Assisted Widerange). Crossover used was low — 250 Hz, how it would work with a convential cone+dome 2-way i don’t know, but there is a lot more to go wrong up that high.

A12pw-MTM-comp.jpg


dave
 
The Onkyo's digital crossover has more than reasonable enough set of crossover points for the MTMs - i.e. 14 fixed points from 250 to 5k. I think I settled on 320Hz as that was the nominal point used in another couple of XO methods tested - PLLXO / active outboard amps, and passive high level - but in the end, the boxes were just too big for the space. I also found that regaining the ability for front height surrounds made a huge improvement in overall surround immersion experience.

The passive line level XO mentioned is certainly a very cheap approach - "we" have used it more than a few times, but it does have some limitations:

- filter function is set by fixed R&C components for each selected XO point, so changing them requires soldering new parts in circuit;
- input impedance of all amps must be known to calculate the values of parts above (in fact the impedance can be used as the R in formula);
- best when restricted to 1st order slopes ;
- no attenuation or BSC included - the former can be easily taken care of by using amps with volume controls;
- variable line level output required from the receiver / amp - not a problem with separates, but not all integrateds have this feature.

Very low cost - the little box and RCA jacks will generally cost more than the passive components.
 
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I should really start a new thread for this however if i wanted to build a pair of full range on the cheap and used some drivers from an old crt tv. How would i work out the cabinet size? What i be able to search the spec will the driver have a part number etc..?
 
You will need to either need to measure them or just experiment.

What kind of enclosure were they in in the TV?

dave
I have an old Ferguson radiogram in my lounge it does not work its just a piece of furniture. I have linked up the drivers to a amp and they work but sound terrible. I suspect its down to the cabinet which is awful. Just a bit of flappy fiberboard and the rear and no internal dampening. Could I built a MDF cabinet within a cabinet?
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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It sounds like the driver is mounted OB. If they actually chose a driver suited to OB, that may be the best way to use it. If you want to keep it in the radiogram just do a new baffle to replace the fibreboard. But part of the problem could be the radiogram around it.

It could also just be a poor driver.

MDF is not the best material to use.

dave
 
It sounds like the driver is mounted OB. If they actually chose a driver suited to OB, that may be the best way to use it. If you want to keep it in the radiogram just do a new baffle to replace the fibreboard. But part of the problem could be the radiogram around it.

It could also just be a poor driver.

MDF is not the best material to use.

dave

Yes, i might just give it a miss then. The is an audio exhibition locally at the end of the month. Mark Audio are there i might go and take a listen. If I like them i'll buy some drivers. There seem to be a few cabinet designs around for them and there baffle step compensation seems to be one of the easiest options for a first build?
 
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