Hi everyone, I’ve tried searching in the subject and not found the awnser I was looking for.
How do you split and control the line level signal going into a bi or tri amped system? Is there any good premade boards?
How do you split and control the line level signal going into a bi or tri amped system? Is there any good premade boards?
Do you mean without filtering? Do you have control and knowledge of the input impedances of the amps and output impedance of the source?
It can be done with either active or passive filters (made with op amps), with level pots for the mid and tweeter.
There should be lots of boards around. There are various filter slopes. Just one example from ebay.
Linkwitz-Riley Crossover 3-Way electronic frequency divider 310HZ or other value | eBay
Audio crossover - Wikipedia
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Don’t forget the two Nelson Pass designed XOs in the diyAudio store.
A PLLXO can be made from just C & R, best limited to first order, or from L (HUGE values) & C. one needs to know the input impedance of the amplifiers (the HF amp with the RC version). In all likelyhood one of the amplifiers will need a gain control. Marchand sells an LC one.
And then there is the whole world of DSP XOs like miniDSP.
dave
A PLLXO can be made from just C & R, best limited to first order, or from L (HUGE values) & C. one needs to know the input impedance of the amplifiers (the HF amp with the RC version). In all likelyhood one of the amplifiers will need a gain control. Marchand sells an LC one.
And then there is the whole world of DSP XOs like miniDSP.
dave
Besides splitting the pre-outs and controlling their levels, you also need to split their amplifier powers according to the crossing frequency used:
Freq => Bass power (%)/Mid+high power(%)
250 Hz => 40/60
350 Hz => 50/50
500 Hz => 60/40
1,200 Hz => 65/35
3,000 Hz => 85/15
5,000 Hz => 90/10
For triamped systems, you may need to split the (mid+high) part once again, into mids and highs. Most people usually end up with a much smaller (and better) amplifier for the mids and highs when compared to the lows.
All the best.
Probably a reasonable guideline but always use your best amp on the top.
But multi-amping means you can start mixing and matching drivers that have sensitivity differences that we would never chose for a passive system. So the above misses an important factor.
dave
But multi-amping means you can start mixing and matching drivers that have sensitivity differences that we would never chose for a passive system. So the above misses an important factor.
dave
Yes planetX is right. In many cases, the highs are compression drivers that are more efficient than cone transducers, allowing smaller amplifiers to be used.
For example, if your highs are 9dB more sensitive than your lows, they could use an amplifier whose power is just 1/8th as much to deliver the same sound pressure level. And, as the crossover frequency climbs higher, the treble amplifier could be even smaller, often reaching 1/10th the power of the lows.
For example, if your highs are 9dB more sensitive than your lows, they could use an amplifier whose power is just 1/8th as much to deliver the same sound pressure level. And, as the crossover frequency climbs higher, the treble amplifier could be even smaller, often reaching 1/10th the power of the lows.
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with a 100dB+ horn for the highs there maybe no need for an amp, just design your active XO with 1W output?