When and why did simple speakers become complicated?

[el`Ol]

If a woofer does 4 khz and at 8 it is at -12 db then you can cross it to a tweeter at 6 khz... - pretty good and audiophilic... and with second order crossover and crossover point at 6 khz the tweeter will get electric signal at 0 db at 8 khz... - pretty good...

No one does that! I also ask why! because with brand new suspension and at lower levels the light and fast tweeter will sound decent, but after a few months or a year it dill decay and it always does...

I take seriously only systems with last crossover point above 5-6 khz

A good example for high-crossed speakers is Penaudio and I designed my speakers that way.

 

[theresa]

Speakers got complicated in order to improve their sound. Zaph Audio has some info regarding crossovers that I have found enlightening. I use miniDSPs for crossovers on my LRC speakers. Its actually quite simple and will outperform any "simple" crossover that only has two or three components. I have been interested in audio ever since my father built a Dynaco Stereo 70 and he let me help. Back then speakers usually had a single cap on the tweeter and they certainly sounded awful! The problem with complex crossovers is not their sound but rather the people who don't understand what they do. It is complex, that's its very nature.

 

[markaudio]

Personally, I never cease to be amazed at how poorly many companies blend 2 way speakers. Serious issues with level matching between drivers or sickouts at the crossover point.

There's no excuse for it these days, the maths isn't that difficult, measurement equipment is easy to come by, caps, coils and resistors are easy to source. It has to be just plain laziness or apathy for the quality of the end product.

Hi Drew P,
Too many systems at recent A/V shows were shockingly bad. Not only XO issues, but driver combinations and matching were also poor. But don't blame the factories. Many brands no longer design and make by themselves. Many factories are under contract to design and make whatever the brands companies demand, usually for slave rates (my previous post explains some).

Take a look at the chart. It shows the 5 years copper prices, base material for all XO's. Despite the down-turn, the current price is now over pre-crash levels. Price hikes, thin margins, it's not lazyness or apathy Drew, it's more serious than those characteristics. Welcome to the dog-eat-dog world of the high street consumer brand, (hence my check-list for high street shoppers in previous post). Don't expect many nice XO's anytime soon, unless you want to write a nice big fat cheque or kill your credit card. Even then, there's no guarantee the speaks will be acoustically good.

Cheers

Mark.