Attenuation resistor

[presscot]

In case I want to attenuate tweeter and midrange with the same rate with resistors placed in series on the amp side or before passive crossover network, Can I combine the tweeter and midrange paths together to use only a single resistor?

 

[AllenB]

Yes you can.

There might also be some variation in response, as it fits in with the circuit impedance, and you can adjust this in your crossover. Xsim can show this or you can measure yourself.

 

[presscot]

I’m concerning about heat loss. Do the watts of resistors required to be twice or greater than those in the separate path?

 

[AllenB]

That is a good thing and it will be difficult to predict. After listening to music you should go and feel your resistors. If you find them too hot to handle you should try larger ones.

 

[presscot]

This may not directly be related to this thread. But I'd like to share to everyone if it has an advantage or not.

Here are the results of 3 experiments: The red line is the tweeter and the midrange installed without any attenuations. The orange line is each tweeter and midrange connected with its own resistor (6.8 ohms at terminal side). The green line is the tweeter and the midrange connected together to a single 6.8 ohms resistor.

From a 30-minute testing, I touched the resistor of the third experiment (single resistor with 2 drivers), it seemed there was no heat formed on it. However, the suspicious thing is that, although it also has flatter response compared to a resistor per driver method, it is rarely found this connection method on any commercial speakers.

What do you think about it?