how to learn xover art

[traw]

So... I've been bitten by the DIY approach. Backgroung in EE but focused on computer engineering and work in the software biz.

I've sold off my meridian dsp 5000 front 3. Seems they are just constructed of seas drivers and tweeter of low cost, but the cost comes in at cab design, amps, dac and dig crossover. Like the sound of meridian a lot. The 'textured' mid and clean but not analytical sound.

Came across Tony G of netherlands designs where much utilitzes seas drivers. By the way, this is for my family room surround system. My 2 channel in family is happily acoustic energy AE3's (old but awesome). Thus, less picky on music magic for surround.

I aquired a set of NHT 12" evolution subs at a steal. Thinking about aquiring the seas P17REX 6.5 drivers and seas 27TAFC/G 1" tweeter. Hmm, not sure what meridian uses exactly. But mention a 2.6kHz xover and polyprop cones. Seems that other seas tweeter with poly surround and alum/magn mention dissappeared off madisound just today. Want to do a two way xover passive, and active 2 way for nht sub management. Or would a 3 way passive be workable? (low xover at 120 or so) to clean the mids on louder burst volumes. Later, center channel would be simpler 2 way with ht processor cutting off 80-100 hz.

Would love to do 3 way, but curious how ht processor will sound with no LFE channel and fronts for mains - whether the surging LFE channel mixed in bombards the main speakers. Also like to listen to music on family system occasionally...

Rambling so I'll get to the point... understand the 1st 2nd order crossovers. But looking shows many designs leveraging much more elaborate networks. Almost as if the base design is there, but then added enhancements to adjust response of speakers in areas or compensate for driver behavoir in aspects such as reactivity. Had started to consider active xover with 3 amps per main speaker, but seems the passive is an art and produces best sound (without getting into very expensive active xover solutions)...

Where do I go for help? tweet is 6ohm, 6.5 driver is 8ohm and 12" woofer/sub is 12ohm... wish xover of 2.6khz/120hz. Or should I just make upper a 2 way with nat driver rolloff and enhance with stereo sub at 60-80hz cuttoff? Is measuring difficult? (so one could tweek)