Hey all,
I'm looking into making a pair of speakers at the moment and I'm almost there with it, however the bit I'm a little stumped on is picking the right crossover.
I'm looking at using the dayton audio 7" RS180-4ohm, with the B&C DE250 1" 8ohm horn.
I've seen a few things saying that Eminence PXB2:1K6 2-Way 1,600Hz would be a reasonable crossover board, but thought it would be a good place to ask on here.
Does anyone have any advice on how to pick the right crossover?
Thank you all in advance for your help.
Charlie
I'm looking into making a pair of speakers at the moment and I'm almost there with it, however the bit I'm a little stumped on is picking the right crossover.
I'm looking at using the dayton audio 7" RS180-4ohm, with the B&C DE250 1" 8ohm horn.
I've seen a few things saying that Eminence PXB2:1K6 2-Way 1,600Hz would be a reasonable crossover board, but thought it would be a good place to ask on here.
Does anyone have any advice on how to pick the right crossover?
Thank you all in advance for your help.
Charlie
The short answer is, "It's not that easy."
You've got a couple of major things going against you trying to use an off-the-shelf crossover on a speaker with your chosen components;
1) The tweeter is 8ohm and the woofer is 4ohm. Most OTS x-over are going to be better with driver impedances that are the same. Choose an 8ohm woofer.
2) ...but the tweeter is incredibly more efficient than the woofer - almost 20db, which is 10x, meaning the tweeter is going to be 10 times louder than the woofer. You could use an L-pad to attenuate it, but that's a big enough gap that you are going to need a big L-pad. You would be better off using a tweeter than is closer in efficiency to the woofer.
3) There's nothing ideal about using an OTS x-over, because crossover design needs to be tuned and idealized to that set of drivers in that specific enclosure... at the very best you'll get performance that "mostly works ok." Will you get sound? Yes. Will it play music? Yes, most likely. Will it be awesome? Probably not.
I'd strongly suggest taking your same budget and buying a kit for a first project. You'll learn a ton, you'll have a great sounding pair of speakers when you are done because they will have an optimized design, you can still point at them and say "I built that!", and you can listen to them and get great sound as you look into what you want to do for the next project. 🙂
You've got a couple of major things going against you trying to use an off-the-shelf crossover on a speaker with your chosen components;
1) The tweeter is 8ohm and the woofer is 4ohm. Most OTS x-over are going to be better with driver impedances that are the same. Choose an 8ohm woofer.
2) ...but the tweeter is incredibly more efficient than the woofer - almost 20db, which is 10x, meaning the tweeter is going to be 10 times louder than the woofer. You could use an L-pad to attenuate it, but that's a big enough gap that you are going to need a big L-pad. You would be better off using a tweeter than is closer in efficiency to the woofer.
3) There's nothing ideal about using an OTS x-over, because crossover design needs to be tuned and idealized to that set of drivers in that specific enclosure... at the very best you'll get performance that "mostly works ok." Will you get sound? Yes. Will it play music? Yes, most likely. Will it be awesome? Probably not.
I'd strongly suggest taking your same budget and buying a kit for a first project. You'll learn a ton, you'll have a great sounding pair of speakers when you are done because they will have an optimized design, you can still point at them and say "I built that!", and you can listen to them and get great sound as you look into what you want to do for the next project. 🙂
Last edited:
Beyma FD250 lets You use 8 or 4 Ohm woofers and has L-pads for tweeter attenuation and horn response eq. I use it on self built PA speakers and they work fine.
Off the shelf crossovers will work, but they are far from optimum. If your goals are quick and easy just get ti playing, then get ready built with some adjustments.
You can always replace it when you get tired of it. 😉
You can always replace it when you get tired of it. 😉
What would sound better, off the shelf passive crossover vs. (cheapish) analogue active crossover such as DBX 2334XS?
Amazon.com: dbx 234xs Stereo 2-Way, Mono 4-Way Crossover with XLR Connectors: Musical Instruments
Amazon.com: dbx 234xs Stereo 2-Way, Mono 4-Way Crossover with XLR Connectors: Musical Instruments
In this case bi-amping would be better. A lot more versatility. Do look at an inexpensive DSP like the miniDSP, it will give a lo tmore control and the analog sections would be hard pressed to be worse than many of the semi-Pro/Pro XOs.
dave
dave
Yes, active is going to be much more flexible and let you get better results faster. The downside of course is more a more complex system than passive.
Over the years, it's been very difficult for me to find an active crossover that causes less harm to the sound (compared to NO crossover in circuit) than my Bryston 10B, which is fully discrete analogue crossover.
Unfortunately, mine is getting very old, and the newest versions are $5K now!
I also tend to hear significant opaqueness and veiling with digital crossovers in A-D-A mode, although I haven't tried the latest batch.
As far as Mini DSP, I have it on good word that xkits analogue crossover sounds much better. And it only costs around $100. This is probably what I am going to try next:
Linkwitz-Riley 2-Way Active Crossover, Fully Assembled [XOVER-2] – Xkitz Electronics
Unfortunately, mine is getting very old, and the newest versions are $5K now!
I also tend to hear significant opaqueness and veiling with digital crossovers in A-D-A mode, although I haven't tried the latest batch.
As far as Mini DSP, I have it on good word that xkits analogue crossover sounds much better. And it only costs around $100. This is probably what I am going to try next:
Linkwitz-Riley 2-Way Active Crossover, Fully Assembled [XOVER-2] – Xkitz Electronics
Some kind of filtering is normally better than nothing, based on a need to do so, meaning it isn't the filter itself but knowing what to do with it.
For this reason active crossovers can get you closer sooner when you are unsure what the result should be. This doesn't mean one setting is necessarily going to be the perfect one.
I find the best result is dependent on the speakers themselves (not to mention the room they're in), and is virtually the same whether I go passive, active, passive line level or a combination.
For this reason active crossovers can get you closer sooner when you are unsure what the result should be. This doesn't mean one setting is necessarily going to be the perfect one.
I find the best result is dependent on the speakers themselves (not to mention the room they're in), and is virtually the same whether I go passive, active, passive line level or a combination.