outboard xover - enclosed or not?

[jmpsmash]

yeah. the convenient alone is already a plus.

i installed the new alphacore inductors on my 3rd order lowpass last night. solder solder solder. and when i was ready to put the board back into the speaker. i noticed that the AC are so much bigger than the solens i had, they won't fit into the space any longer!

so i had to unscrew the board and leave it dangling inside the speaker. when i get around to getting a tall speaker stand for the xover, i will pull them out of the cabinet.

[Lenin]

Ahem,

Never stuck my head into the *** end of a bass bin at a live show, but Peter is correct - heat is not the issue here.

If we were to design the worst possible environment in which a crossover were to operate, we would end up with something not too far removed from a speaker cabinet.

In my experience, inductors suffer the most from the constant vibration - sadly, air-cores more than ferrite-cored types. As for big metalised polyprops like Solens and Ansars - hook one up to a scope and give it a gentle flick with a finger. You'll never put a crossover in an enclosure again.

The other issue no-one has picked up on when disagreeing with 'Prickly Bill' Fitzpatrick, is the merits and de-merits of placing one's externalised crossovers at the amp end of the speaker cable.

Any takers?

Peter?

[Peter Daniel]

This is probably the best place for a crossover and when I was building my first A75 monoblocks I put the crossovers right in the amp (in a top part). You can see on a pic 6 holes for 3 outputs. Later when I decided to sell the amp, I converted to regular output.

I was experimenting with my DAC recently and the kind of feet and the way they positioned under the chassis play big role in the sonics, so how could it be, that locating the crossover wouldn't affect the final sound?

[Ken L]

I've got outboard crossovers that I mounted in a neat plastic display box 4" by 6" by 10" -

These display boxes are clear acrylic plastic with a black plastic base. They are normally used to display model cars, etc.

I bought three of them for 20 bucks or so.

They're professional looking, and keep cats, kids and dust out.

I found them on the web, a company in Ohio, I think.

Works for me -

Ken L

if you're interested, I'll try to see if I can lay my hands on the invoice.