This might be stupid but...

[CJ900RR]

I have read that sound it self can be seperated in 6 different stages.

Deep bas: 16 - 35 Hz
Bas: 35 - 120 Hz
Low midrange: 120 - 400 Hz
Midrange: 400 - 2k Hz
High midrange: 2k - 5kHz
Diskant (dont know the word for it in english, sorry) 5k - 20kHz

Would it be a good idea to build a speaker with 6 element's and a filter that split the different ranges between the element's depending on frequenzy, or am i way out of track here?!

Im new to this so laugh at me or tell me if it could be done, or maybe it allready have been?

Thanks in advance, Carl Johan...

[Cal Weldon]

Hi Carl,

Interesting question.

I think you'll find there are differing opinions on the frequencies you have listed and that there isn't really anything that causes a division, so they're not necessarily important figures. Often the spectrum is divided by octaves.

Ideally you want one driver to cover all frequencies but that's tough to do. Some like full range drivers, other find them lacking. The next best thing is a two way. You have only two drivers to mess the sound up and one croosover point. Some persons like to start with a really good midrange and work outward from there, ie: use the mid for most of the spectrum and just fill in where needed at the lowest and highest frequencies.

By the time you get to six drivers, you had better have well matched drivers and a heck of a lot of XO knowledge or they might just end up being a waste of time and money.

[owdi]

You have the right idea, it makes sense to split the work between several drivers.

Assuming you want your speaker to work between 20hz and 20khz, you would split it into:

20-200hz - subwoofer
200-2000hz - midrange
2khz-20khz - tweeter

The above configuration makes sense if the speaker is passive, but once you go to active subwoofers many people choose to use a single powered subwoofer to save costs. With one sub you have to push the crossover frequency down in order to hide its location, so now your crossover points are 80 and 2000, which is pretty close to most 3 way projects.

I personally would love to try a two way project with a crossover frequency of 600hz, but I can't find a good tweeter. The various full range drivers that can be crossed over this low all have low sensitivity and a relatively ragged upper response. I'll have to keep waiting for that 2" dome tweeter with an fs of 400hz, sensitivity of 90db/watt, and LE of .05mh.

Dan

[dwk123]

Originally posted by owdi

I personally would love to try a two way project with a crossover frequency of 600hz, but I can't find a good tweeter. The various full range drivers that can be crossed over this low all have low sensitivity and a relatively ragged upper response. I'll have to keep waiting for that 2" dome tweeter with an fs of 400hz, sensitivity of 90db/watt, and LE of .05mh.

Dan

Well, the new Dayton RS dome midrange comes close, but not quite. You could run it 600 up to 7-8k, but it has a dome resonance around 13k so it can't quite go all the way. Still seems like an interesting driver if you don't completely object to the idea of a supertweeter. I have a couple that I'm just starting to play with, and for the price they look very good - end-user tests verify that it's basically ruler-flat from 500 to 10k, although no distortion measurements yet.


To the original poster, the frequency ranges you mention are convenient for discussion purposes, but don't really correspond to any real physical phenomena and so don't necessarily correlate to how you want to arrange your drivers. This question really has far more to do with the physical properties of the drivers than anything else. There are some perception-related effects that may govern where you choose to place your crossover frequencies, but even this is widely debated.

IMHO even if you're going for true state-of-the-art full-range performance at high levels, a 3.5 or 4 way system is all that is needed:
20Hz-40Hz - subwoofer (this can be mono)
40-300 - woofer (upper end can be anywhere from 200 to 400)
300-2k - mid
2k+ tweeter

(this assumes you're looking at 'conventional' speakers. Horns are a different matter, and can have more limited frequency coverage than direct-radiating drivers)