Moving to triamp, need decent cheap 3-way active crossover and poweramp advice

[bikehorn]

I have laid out the 'roadmap' for my DIY audio system and decided to triamp it due to the varying sensitivities of my drivers.

on the bottom i have a Karlson K15 cabinet with a 96 dB 15" woofer. I am hoping to drive this with about 50 watts and would like to use it up to around 900 hz.

mids will be handled by a 107 dB efficient midrange compression driver and a Smith horn lens going from 900 to 5k, and for the highs(5k and on) a 105 dB compression driver and mini smith horn lens.

for the mids and highs i thought about using a modded T-amp. they are cheap, supposedly sound pretty nice(never heard one) and with the sensitivities of my compression drivers i doubt i will need very much power.

I am not operating on a large budget here and I am looking for a cheap stereo 3-way crossover that will work acceptably. so far, candidates include the Behringer CX4300, Samson S 3-Way, Peavey 35XO and dbx 231. i can't pay too much more than $120 US plus shipping new, so obviously i am not looking for something that will lead the pack. just something tha tworks acceptably which could be swapped out later. any suggestions?

 

[DCPreamp]

I assume you mean Behringer CX3400 - I've used Behringer crossovers before and despite their low cost, their performance is very good. They are well made, very quiet, and loaded with functions. I can't speak for the other products you listed, but I see the Behringer on eBay for ~$115.

 

[bikehorn]

thanks, that one was one of my front-runners as it seems to have the best feature set at its price point. i'm a little worried about unbalanced-to-balanced connections though, as my system will be unbalanced but the CX3400 only has balanced inputs. will i need something better than just an XLR to RCA cable? i am not prepared to "go balanced" with my whole system at this point.

thanks

 

[Cloth Ears]

I run unbalanced RCA from my pre-amp into a CX3400, bass via balanced to a Behringer A500, and mid/top to unbalanced (Sansui AU-X1) power amp.

It's not the best sound you can get, but bang per buck I reckon is about the best. Your speakers may be a little more revealing.

BUT, if you start this way, then you won't have to drop much to upgrade your x-over (maybe $400) if you decide the CX3400 isn't cutting it. It certainly allows to to see whether active is the way to go (I'm not looking back)

 

[bikehorn]

i think going active makes the most sense to me. i got tired of searching around for drivers that had matching sensitivities AND decent prices. when i was picking drivers for my Karlson cabinets i wanted to have fairly decent sensitivity, and i found a woofer that was efficient enough for me. once i found that, i found barely any midranges or tweeters in the 96 dB range. the unique nature of the Karlson makes it an awkward cabinet for mounting a typical dome or cone driver for mids/highs so i looked into horns, except compression drivers are super efficient and would require heavy padding if i used a passive netowrk. more headaches, i didn't want to waste power padding them and i also don't have the time/energy/cash to spend prototyping a passive crossover since everything i read on the subject of 3-way crossover design suggested it was not trivial to achieve something effective. i figure an active crossover is probably the least expensive option too...crossover inductors aren't cheap, and being a university student, i am cheap.

 

[audio-kraut]

I agree with the behringer stuff, but check out the pro sound pages on ebay - lots of cheap and decent pro crossovers around.
You can also check with marchand electronics and build your own customized

http://www.marchandelec.com/

http://instruments.search.ebay.com/crossover_Pro-Audio_W0QQsacatZ15197