Hi Thanks for reading. I've built a crossover for my tweeters and have soldered the cap in series with the tweeter, then soldered the inductor across the tweeter.
Is it okay to do this, to leave the components dangling in the air like that, or is it better to fix them down in some way. I just thought it would save me money on having to buy a circuit board and this way is a lot faster, but is performance affected in any way? What is the effect.
The speaker is open-back so the components will not be buffeted by the changing air pressures.
Many thanks
Is it okay to do this, to leave the components dangling in the air like that, or is it better to fix them down in some way. I just thought it would save me money on having to buy a circuit board and this way is a lot faster, but is performance affected in any way? What is the effect.
The speaker is open-back so the components will not be buffeted by the changing air pressures.
Many thanks
The inductor may break off or damage the terminals due to vibration and it's weight. When this kind of thing happens there's the possibility of collateral damage, such as shorting the amp.
Thanks. Would performance be affected, lowering of sound quality. Is there anything about vibrations components do not like.
Across a loudspeaker?
In the front end of an amplifier or part of the feedback loop maybe but only if there is enough amplification to produce a sound from a milivolt or so. A loudspeaker does not amplify.
It is always good practice to fix components with tywraps or even hot melt glue, like the bottom end manufacturers do.
If the coil disconnects itself, the resonant frequency will change and if your ears are better than mine.
That could change the characteristics of any feedback loops and cause response issues.
From a vibration standpoint alone, its important to secure inductors away from LF and MF drivers so the vibration doesn't modulate the magnetic field of the driver with the inductance ie creating a VC of sorts . It may sound trivial but I had a situation where a small series inductor was flapping around close to the mid driver on a large 3 way monitor and created weird harmonics when playing back louder lower midbass notes from a Fender Rhoads keyboard.
The other potential issue with heavy foil caps with thin solid leads is the risk of vibration fatigue of the leads close to the cap body. When played loudly, larger speakers can easily shake apart crossover components if they're not supported. I wasn't happy when one of the big expensive film caps had a broken lead right where it entered the cap body, rendering the cap unrepairable. Thats why I typically make sure all the xover parts are held down with a bit of silicone RTV. You also don't want to mount crossover parts on a larger unsupported panel which is prone to vibrate easily.
The other potential issue with heavy foil caps with thin solid leads is the risk of vibration fatigue of the leads close to the cap body. When played loudly, larger speakers can easily shake apart crossover components if they're not supported. I wasn't happy when one of the big expensive film caps had a broken lead right where it entered the cap body, rendering the cap unrepairable. Thats why I typically make sure all the xover parts are held down with a bit of silicone RTV. You also don't want to mount crossover parts on a larger unsupported panel which is prone to vibrate easily.
Ziptie the inductor through a board, glue everything else. Stand off resistors for heat dissipation and fix the board with screws to the side / bottom of the enclosure. Don't rely on velcro or other adhesives
As stated speakers move, gravity wins and things break away
As stated speakers move, gravity wins and things break away
The vibration fatigue issues are enough problem, but the close proximity of the coil to the tweeter's metals will also change it's inductance.
Tested a nominal 2 MH coil in proximity to a variety of materials to measure their effects:
The air core coil & former weighed 180 grams and read 1.95 MH.
On top a 100 gram brass belt buckle, the coil read 1.87 MH.
On top a 60 gram 40 cm aluminum angle, the coil also read 1.87 MH.
On top a 180 gram 40 cm steel strip, the coil read 2.22 MH.
A change in inductance will affect the frequency and slope of the crossover circuit.