Picking crossover points

[tbone01]

Hello,

I am building my first pair of two way standmount speakers and was wondering if using an active crossover is a good way to pick passive crossover points?

 

[tvrgeek]

It is how I start to get a feel where I am going. ( DCX) Even if you do, never forget to put a big blocking cap in series with the tweeter. Of course, it is not a simple translation, but it does tell you a lot about the drivers. In other words, if yo find a wonderful result at 2K 2nd order, don't expect to build a calculated 2K crossover in passive. You have to deal with the driver impedance.

 

[sreten]

Hi,

No its not and its a sure fire method of being wrong.

rgds, sreten.

http://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy (see if nothing else, the excellent FAQs)
The Speaker Building Bible
Zaph|Audio
Zaph|Audio - ZA5 Speaker Designs with ZA14W08 woofer and Vifa DQ25SC16-04 tweeter
http://audio.claub.net/Simple Loudspeaker Design ver2.pdf
FRD Consortium tools guide
Designing Crossovers with Software Only
RJB Audio Projects
Jay's DIY Loudspeaker Projects
Speaker Design Works
HTGuide Forum - A Guide to HTguide.com Completed Speaker Designs.
A Speaker project
DIY Loudspeaker Projects Troels Gravesen
Humble Homemade Hifi
Quarter Wavelength Loudspeaker Design
The Frugal-Horns Site -- High Performance, Low Cost DIY Horn Designs
Linkwitz Lab - Loudspeaker Design
Music and Design

Great free SPICE Emulator : SPICE-Based Analog Simulation Program - TINA-TI - TI Software Folder

 

[AllenB]

The better way to choose a crossover point for drivers is to study their features. Sometimes listening tests will help to reveal something that wasn't obvious in one of the drivers but this alone may or may not be an acceptable reason to shift a crossover point.

 

[tbone01]

I think I will abandon the idea and do it based on measurments.

 

[gedlee]

I think that it depends on the "how" you will use to decide the crossover point. If you measure the polar response for different crossover point and find that one which yields the best polar response then this would work. Although translating that to passive can be difficult. If you have an active crossover and are only making a set for yourself then just stay with the active.

But do not use an active unit to detenrmine the crossover point by listening. It would be shear luck if that worked.

 

[tbone01]

Earl,

Would the polar response be the same with an active or passive configuration or just pretty close?
I read that the dispersion at the crossover point between the tweeter and midrange should be close to the same would you agree with that?

 

[whgeiger]

Exploration Path

Hello,

I am building my first pair of two way standmount speakers and was wondering if using an active crossover is a good way to pick passive crossover points?

There is more to crossover design than just picking frequency points to divide the audio spectrum into segments. To fully explore the signal conditioning requirements for each driver, recommend use of digital crossover implemented on a computer with a sound card. Such an arrangement will allow filter slope, frequency, output level, phase, and delay and response equalization to be easily adjusted. Once marriage of the drivers has been optimized, then a decision can be rationally made as to whether use of passive components is an electrically feasible, economically attractive and acoustically acceptable alternative.
Regards,
WHG