Digital crossover for 3-way speakers

It is a very difficult choice between FIR vs IIR. I went back and forth many times until I ended up choosing 260000 tap FIR, but IIR still sounds slightly better in some way, when comparing IIR vs FIR with the same phase response.

I wouldn't be using FIR if I would not have needed phase correction. FiR is a double sided sward.
 
Fenalaar, i would buy the curryman DAC, but i need balanced output via XLRs so i still need to sort out the what dacs to use. One option would be to use backplane output boards like this in a 2U case: https://www.minidsp.com/forum/suggestion-box/10154-curryman-dac-and-balanced-output FIR is just for experimentation in case i need it. Plasnu, i have a pc and i will use it, but the audio system still needs to be usable - i feed it a signal via spdif and it plays the sound, be the source video, audio, a pc game etc.. Im planning to run 96khz anyways if possible. What hardware did you use to achieve 260000 tap FIR?
 
XLR outputs? How about the Twisted Pear Opus dacs, then? They're $75 a piece for stereo modules, and they offer balanced outputs.

A 260000 tap filter has serious amounts of latency, so it would be of little us with video.
The latency is calculated as
(N - 1) / (2 * Fs) where N is the number of taps and Fs is the sampling frequency.

A 2048 tap filter at 48kHz has a latency of 21ms.

A 260000 tap filter at 96kHz has a latency of 1.35 secs. At 192kHz, the latency is still at .67 seconds.

If you do crossovers and use different FIR lengths, you need to account for the difference in latency.

Johan-Kr
 
Last edited:
muskel, my computer is Mac Mini i7. It is also used as a music server with Tidal and iTunes. You can buy a second hand, balanced out, multiple channel, excellent pro audio interface for $100-$2000. Pro audio is a matured market and the price is not unreasonable like consumer audio interface. Gearsluz.com is a good place to research pro audio equipments.

Fenalaar, 260000 tap with a latency of 1.35ms@96K is a theoretical limit. My setup has a few times more latency than that to avoid occasional clicks.
 
For audio only, a latency of 2 seconds or more wouldn't really be a problem. Video would be a problem.

260000 is a bit of overkill, I feel.

I did a test with my Minisharc, and downloaded the 2x2 plugin in addition to the 4x8 plugin.

Running it two-channel as a correction unit for my passive speakers, the difference in accuracy in the bass with 6000 taps per channel (2x2 plugin) versus only 2000 taps is apparent.

I'd use IIR eq to start with. As most of the speaker problems are minimum phase, straightening the response with IIR will automatically fix phase too. Then use FIR to do XO and remaining phase problem. If using the minisharc in 4x8 mode, I'd limit FIR usage below about 150Hz as much as possible.

Johan-Kr
 
Its been a fun time with my 4x10HD, but now the main board is dead. It always had trouble connecting with the PC (Win 7 mostly connected, Win 10 never). Now it refuses to connect at all or accept signal input.

I now have to ship the unit to MiniDSP in Hong Kong for repair and they might have to replace the board if they cannot repair it. I feel that the price of the unit exceeds its delivered quality. The DACs could also be better.

The market has changed since i bought my unit. What are good solutions for my 4-way passive speaker setup now? Can an external audio interface based crossover be done easier now than before ?

MOTU 828es has some solid hardware specs along with a supergood DAC. Price (range) is also ok.: LINK
I still need systemwide audio output for games, music, movies etc.
Any opinions?