I'm looking to add a crossover to my custom bass(guitar) cab.
How do I build a simple passive crossover to do this?
What I want to do is limit the high freqs going to the 15. Using the 10's a full range and the 15 for the lower end punch. I'm not looking to make it a subwoffer, just cut the highs in order to allow the lows to come through with more clarity...
It's a 2x10/1x15 cab. The 15 is a 16 ohm speaker and the 10's are 8 ohms each...
The cab max is @ 450 watts so I'll be using a 16 gauge inductor but beyond that I don't know what to do...
Any ideas?
How do I build a simple passive crossover to do this?
What I want to do is limit the high freqs going to the 15. Using the 10's a full range and the 15 for the lower end punch. I'm not looking to make it a subwoffer, just cut the highs in order to allow the lows to come through with more clarity...
It's a 2x10/1x15 cab. The 15 is a 16 ohm speaker and the 10's are 8 ohms each...
The cab max is @ 450 watts so I'll be using a 16 gauge inductor but beyond that I don't know what to do...
Any ideas?
We rally need to know a little more before we can help.
Your best bet might be to borrow a graphic eq, and use a separate power amp to temporarily drive the 15s with the graphic in line, then you can work out the best frequency for the xover.
Your best bet might be to borrow a graphic eq, and use a separate power amp to temporarily drive the 15s with the graphic in line, then you can work out the best frequency for the xover.
Hi,
Simplest method would be a series coil to the 15" driver, giving a 6dB/octave cutoff which should be fine for your application. Somewhere around 250Hz would be ok. This would require a 5mH coil (assuming 8ohm). Using your 16g wire and an inside (former) diameter of 50mm (2") and a former width of 2", 326 turns of wire would be required. This will require some 250 feet of wire ! Coil would be bulky, but cable tied to a sheet of wood will secure it.
Cheers
Simplest method would be a series coil to the 15" driver, giving a 6dB/octave cutoff which should be fine for your application. Somewhere around 250Hz would be ok. This would require a 5mH coil (assuming 8ohm). Using your 16g wire and an inside (former) diameter of 50mm (2") and a former width of 2", 326 turns of wire would be required. This will require some 250 feet of wire ! Coil would be bulky, but cable tied to a sheet of wood will secure it.
Cheers
Oops - just noticed you said 16ohms for the 15". This means coil has to be bigger for same frequency ! For the above coil at 16ohms, frequency is around 500Hz..... maybe ok, or could be a little high.
Try pinkmouse's suggestion of tempory graphic through separate amp to try and determine best crossover frequency - the lower you go the bigger the coil (and the higher the losses)
Cheers
Try pinkmouse's suggestion of tempory graphic through separate amp to try and determine best crossover frequency - the lower you go the bigger the coil (and the higher the losses)
Cheers
Well the cab's set up with one 1/4 inch jack. In order to seporate the speakers I would have to make it 2 jacks. I'd have to cut a new hole in my cab and ruin the tolex job I just completed last week.
Plus I use the cab on a daily basis. It's part of my bass rig and I only have 2 outputs on my amp and 2 cabs...
I was hoping someone could suggest a cap setup for a 16 ohm setup I could build and try. If I don't like it I could change it easly enough. Hell it's just changing a cap, right?
Like I said I'm not looking for a sub just to take a little off the top end...
Plus I use the cab on a daily basis. It's part of my bass rig and I only have 2 outputs on my amp and 2 cabs...
I was hoping someone could suggest a cap setup for a 16 ohm setup I could build and try. If I don't like it I could change it easly enough. Hell it's just changing a cap, right?
Like I said I'm not looking for a sub just to take a little off the top end...
A capacitor will only roll off the low end - to roll off the top end a coil is needed. Due to low(ish) frequencies involved, the coil WILL be large. If you buy it, it will be expensive - if you make it, it will be time consuming and not readily able to be changed, so you really need to get it right first time.
As for tempory test setup, if you remove existing jack socket from cabinet and just let the wires dangle out of the hole, then you can fit another pair of wires through to the 15 just for the purposes of testing. I realise it will be a bit of stuffing around, but easier than winding or modifying multiple coils while experimenting.
cheers
As for tempory test setup, if you remove existing jack socket from cabinet and just let the wires dangle out of the hole, then you can fit another pair of wires through to the 15 just for the purposes of testing. I realise it will be a bit of stuffing around, but easier than winding or modifying multiple coils while experimenting.
cheers
As another alternative, EV make a similar cabinet (1x15 + 2x 10) and they ran the 15 full range but rolled the low end off to the 10s using a capacitor. this may clean up the low end a bit by not allowing the 10s to muddy up. I don't have the capacitor value that EV use, but around 150uF would be required - use a number in parallel to get the right value. Motor starting capacitors would be the most economical to get the required values.
cheers
cheers
Ok, I didn't know that a coil was needed to make a low pass filter...
As for the idea of cutting the lows to the 10's, it sounds good to me.
My 10's are both 8 ohm speakers wired in series. The 16 ohm 15 in parallel with the 10's. That makes the cab 8 ohm total.
I'm guessing I would need to put one cap before each speaker in the 10" series? Also, do I still need the inductors?
P.S.
Thanks for all the info and help. I know what I'm doing with basic speaker wiring, and I can wire a guitar/bass in my sleep but when it comes to this stuff I'm almost clueless. 😉
Edit:
I was looking at some audio sites I frequent and found some crossover info. http://colomar.com/Shavano/crossover6db.html A little more that half way down they have some crossover charts... Does any of these sound like it would work?
As for the idea of cutting the lows to the 10's, it sounds good to me.
My 10's are both 8 ohm speakers wired in series. The 16 ohm 15 in parallel with the 10's. That makes the cab 8 ohm total.
I'm guessing I would need to put one cap before each speaker in the 10" series? Also, do I still need the inductors?P.S.
Thanks for all the info and help. I know what I'm doing with basic speaker wiring, and I can wire a guitar/bass in my sleep but when it comes to this stuff I'm almost clueless. 😉
Edit:
I was looking at some audio sites I frequent and found some crossover info. http://colomar.com/Shavano/crossover6db.html A little more that half way down they have some crossover charts... Does any of these sound like it would work?
this crossover chart is similar to what I have. You will notice that at 250Hz, C1 is listed at 79.5uF for 8ohms and 159uF for 4ohms. As your 10s are in series, and therefore 16ohms, capacitor required is around 40uF. Just insert the capacitor(s) in the wire joining the two 10's. Experimenting is easy here - more capacitance will increase amount of bass through 10s, less capacitance will decrease it.
Happy experimenting
PS: coil not required for this
Edit: As the 10s will not be doing as much of the low end work, you may have to boost the low end a little on your amp if it has a graphic, but should come through much cleaner
Cheers
Happy experimenting
PS: coil not required for this
Edit: As the 10s will not be doing as much of the low end work, you may have to boost the low end a little on your amp if it has a graphic, but should come through much cleaner
Cheers
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