outboard xover - enclosed or not?

[jmpsmash]

i am planning to pull the xover out of the speaker box. currently, they are located at the bottom of the bass cabinet. there are no space elsewhere. however, the terminals are near the top of the whole speaker. as a result, the cables has to run from terminal high up, down to the bottom, and then back up to the drivers. i think that's probably less efficient.

anyway, my question is then, if i do pull them out, and they are pretty big. should i build a box and put them in there? i will have to raise this box up to the level of the terminals with a pair of speaker stand. if there is no sonic advantage, i may just leave them bare..

 

[Peter Daniel]

Leaving them bare, might be actually a sonic advantage.

 

[FrankDIY]

The network will also run cooler, another advantage.

 

[jmpsmash]

ah... thanks. i will leave them bare then.

since the entry point into the speaker is so high, i am thinking of getting a cheapo 30" speaker stand, mount a wooden board on top, and have the xover mounted on that.... anyone know of a good source for cheap speaker stand? IKEA?

 

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Regardless of what a lot of people may want to believe, there is no point in removing the crossover to the outside of the enclosure.

Surely you have more important things to do?

 

[PeteMcK]

Bill, I agree.
I moved my xovers to the outside of the boxes 'cause I thought I might get around to tweaking them...........I never have, and it's one more thing to be careful of when moving the cabs, one more thing for the kids to play with when you're not looking....
cheers,
Pete McK

 

[FrankDIY]

I think we all agree that this is not "user-friendly", but the question was...

my question is then, if i do pull them out, and they are pretty big. should i build a box and put them in there? i will have to raise this box up to the level of the terminals with a pair of speaker stand. if there is no sonic advantage, i may just leave them bare..

 

[jmpsmash]

Regardless of what a lot of people may want to believe, there is no point in removing the crossover to the outside of the enclosure.

Surely you have more important things to do?

Bill, would you care to elaborate?

 

[jmpsmash]

Bill, I agree.
I moved my xovers to the outside of the boxes 'cause I thought I might get around to tweaking them...........I never have, and it's one more thing to be careful of when moving the cabs, one more thing for the kids to play with when you're not looking....
cheers,
Pete McK

more than a few times i have found myself having to tilt over my 150lb speakers, open up the bottom, unscrew the xovers and mod them. and i just ordered some new inductors so i think i'll have to do it again tonight. the moving and tilting and removing cones and hardfloor protector is a tedious process. and more than once i have unfortunately dug little holes onto the recently finished floor...

 

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

jmpsmash:

Maybe I should rephrase.

Aside from the convenience of easy tweaking, crossovers inside the box work just as well as those outside. Heat is not a problem.

As far a more important things to do, I retract that statement.

 

[FrankDIY]

jmpsmash:
Heat is not a problem.

I don't agree, heat change the physical parameters of the crossover components. Heat is a small parameter in the system but it can be as important as other tweeking like teflon wire instead of regular wire or point-to-point wiring instead of using a PCB, etc.

 

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Francois:

Please post for all to see the capacitance/inductance/resistance change of typical crossover component values as a function of a reasonable ambient temperature range within a typical enclosure. A series of graphs would be nice but a table will suffice.

Thank you.

 

[Peter Daniel]

I don't think heat has anything to do here. More the vibrations and resonances. Ever poked your head inside a speaker cabinet while the drivers were playing music? I did, and didn't like it at all. Also, it's been shown, that even CD players sound better without cover.

 

[pinkmouse]

I agree with Peter, isolating the crossover components from the vibrations of the driver has a perceptable effect. Since I discovered this I have always mounted my crossovers externally, in non ferrous boxes.

Peter- did you used to stick your head into the bass bins at live shows too?

 

[FrankDIY]

Interesting discussion.

Everybody has their own opinion on these parameters since it is almost impossible to objectively measure the difference. Sounds different? Maybe. Sound better? [put your answer here].

Heat can be as important as vibration (especially if your connection are loosy )

 

[mrfeedback]

A/B Testing On The Fly....

François, one advantage of having your crossovers external is that if you have an unearthed soldering iron, you can change crossover values on the fly, and fine tune it much more easily.
Some very expensive loudspeakers run external crossover boxes.

Eric.

 

[FrankDIY]

Exactly, it is very useful in the debugging and tweaking phase. Also it is a good advantage because you can show the crossover to your others audio freak friends.

 

[navin]

mrfeedback wrote "change crossover values on the fly"

is this recomended? with solder, wire, othr caps etc. i would prefer to turn the power amp off.

 

[mrfeedback]

If you add a switch in series with the earth connection to the tip/barrel of your solder iron, and run your amp at low to medium levels and are careful not to cause any short circuits, you can solder in or delete components whilst you are listening and compare the results in real time.
I have done this on circuits for years and no problems.

Eric.

 

[FrankDIY]

oups, I have never did that real-time