Hello all !
I need some advice regarding 2 way open-baffle configuration . I have one 8 inch wide-range and 2 x 15 inch per side . The wide-range is driven by a AB class amplifier with no volume control and the woofers by a class D amplifier also without volume knob . I have a DAC with 2 RCA inputs and control volume , the signal is send by an Y cable to the amplifiers . The PC is the source .
The wide range sounds good as always , i have it for quite some time an d i have listening only this driver , sounds great . The woofers are the problem , i have a very bad , weak and muffled sound . The class D amplifier is set to LF and Stereo . Even at max volume ( almost clipping ) the sound is weak and muffled . Any thoughts ? Is some software tricks ?
I have NO experience with Pro drivers . Or amplifiers for that matter so bear with me .
Thanks
I need some advice regarding 2 way open-baffle configuration . I have one 8 inch wide-range and 2 x 15 inch per side . The wide-range is driven by a AB class amplifier with no volume control and the woofers by a class D amplifier also without volume knob . I have a DAC with 2 RCA inputs and control volume , the signal is send by an Y cable to the amplifiers . The PC is the source .
The wide range sounds good as always , i have it for quite some time an d i have listening only this driver , sounds great . The woofers are the problem , i have a very bad , weak and muffled sound . The class D amplifier is set to LF and Stereo . Even at max volume ( almost clipping ) the sound is weak and muffled . Any thoughts ? Is some software tricks ?
I have NO experience with Pro drivers . Or amplifiers for that matter so bear with me .
Thanks
To begin with you will want to compensate for the falling bass, find a place to cross and set the level.
What is the impedance of the 15" woofers, and are they connected in series or parallel?
Also what is the output current capacity of the Class D amp? Sounds like you may not have enough current capability to drive the woofers load.
Also what is the output current capacity of the Class D amp? Sounds like you may not have enough current capability to drive the woofers load.
Bass on OB requires
- a large baffle, flat or folded
- and/or DSP to correct for the falling bass response
- a large baffle, flat or folded
- and/or DSP to correct for the falling bass response
Yes knowing the impedance of the drivers and how they are wired is pretty important. If 2x8ohm wired in series to 16ohm... a small class d amp will struggle to output enough voltage to get them moving. If 16ohm drivers this would be even worse. Wire them in parallel instead, if 8ohm drivers be sure the amp can handle 4ohm.
Sounds like there is also no crossover at all? If so, that is a whole other can-o-worms
Sounds like there is also no crossover at all? If so, that is a whole other can-o-worms
Woofers are 8 ohm and wired in series . Amp is the Behringer NX3000 driving just the woofers . There is no baffle , the woofers are facing each other in a craddle . Yes , as for today there s no XO at all , i m digging on the options on hand . J River does not do me any good as i have an Ifi Nano DAC and this kind of DAC s are not suitable for cross-over via j River . So i ve been told .
looking up the Behringer NX3000. It is 2ohm stable and only mentions 4ohm otherwise. I'd suggest wiring the woofers in parallel for the 4ohm load the amp is designed for.
Only other obvious thing I can think of is make sure they are wired in phase with each other. Not sure why I didn't think of that sooner based on your description of the issue.
For active crossover you would need a dsp device between your dac and amps in place of your y-connectors. Something like minidsphd, just not sure what is available to you. However if you just want to run the fullrange driver with fullrange signal anyway you could wire up a simple low pass passive filter for your woofers instead. Though you do need some way to match levels between everything so if neither amp has volume control and not using a dsp, you would need an attenuator device on one (probably woofers).
Only other obvious thing I can think of is make sure they are wired in phase with each other. Not sure why I didn't think of that sooner based on your description of the issue.
For active crossover you would need a dsp device between your dac and amps in place of your y-connectors. Something like minidsphd, just not sure what is available to you. However if you just want to run the fullrange driver with fullrange signal anyway you could wire up a simple low pass passive filter for your woofers instead. Though you do need some way to match levels between everything so if neither amp has volume control and not using a dsp, you would need an attenuator device on one (probably woofers).
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That could be your problem. Try putting them on a wide flat baffle instead and see what happens.