Hey, had an idea but not sure if it's clever or potentially useless.
Let's say I have a bookshelf speaker with an 8 ohm 5" mid-bass (can go down to 50 Hz with smooth roll off) and a tweeter (8 ohms/5.4 ohms DC). I was going to use a 2K/8 Ohm low pass filter for the mid-bass and then put a 0.15 crossover capacitor from the amp's output (before the low pass filter) to the tweeter to cut off the low end (f3 should be right around 2KHz).
My thought was, what if I change the low-pass filter to a 2K/4 Ohm and add an 8" down-firing "sub" in parallel to the 5" to add some more bass/depth? Both speakers appear to operate reasonably well up to 2K, but the 5" is obviously a little flatter above 1K. Basically my question is would adding the 8" effect the output/quality of the 5"?
I was thinking about a 3-way xo but from the online calculators I found the options weren't exactly what I want (in a perfect world I'd love to cross at like 80Hz and 2,500Hz.
Please let me know what you think, thanks!
Let's say I have a bookshelf speaker with an 8 ohm 5" mid-bass (can go down to 50 Hz with smooth roll off) and a tweeter (8 ohms/5.4 ohms DC). I was going to use a 2K/8 Ohm low pass filter for the mid-bass and then put a 0.15 crossover capacitor from the amp's output (before the low pass filter) to the tweeter to cut off the low end (f3 should be right around 2KHz).
My thought was, what if I change the low-pass filter to a 2K/4 Ohm and add an 8" down-firing "sub" in parallel to the 5" to add some more bass/depth? Both speakers appear to operate reasonably well up to 2K, but the 5" is obviously a little flatter above 1K. Basically my question is would adding the 8" effect the output/quality of the 5"?
I was thinking about a 3-way xo but from the online calculators I found the options weren't exactly what I want (in a perfect world I'd love to cross at like 80Hz and 2,500Hz.
Please let me know what you think, thanks!
The problem with a 2.5way would be that you aren't reducing the excursion from the 5" woofer, so it'll still overload and distort at high volume. If the aim is primarily increasing the quantity or extension of bass then 2.5way will work.
If what you want is to increase the quality of the bass by preventing over-excursion of the 5" then you need to place some kind of high pass filter on it.
If what you want is to increase the quality of the bass by preventing over-excursion of the 5" then you need to place some kind of high pass filter on it.
As TMM pointed out, a 5 inch driver will distort at higher volumes if there is no high pass filter.
But, if you do keep the volume lower (peaks below 95-100 dB) the natural roll-off of the woofer/enclosure combination might be just enough to work out OK. Designing a proper passive crossover at 200-300 Hz can be costly, since large inductors and capacitors must be used. The crossover could easily exceed the cost of that 5-inch midwoofer. So, another possibility is to double up on that midwoofer. Using a pair of 5-inchers in series will reduce the excursion of each by half while maintaining the same sensitivity. Just another option to consider.
But, if you do keep the volume lower (peaks below 95-100 dB) the natural roll-off of the woofer/enclosure combination might be just enough to work out OK. Designing a proper passive crossover at 200-300 Hz can be costly, since large inductors and capacitors must be used. The crossover could easily exceed the cost of that 5-inch midwoofer. So, another possibility is to double up on that midwoofer. Using a pair of 5-inchers in series will reduce the excursion of each by half while maintaining the same sensitivity. Just another option to consider.
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