"Steven E. Harris" wrote in message


"Arny Krueger" writes:

An outboard 24 dB/octave crossover splits the subwoofer signal from
the feed to the LF & RF speakers.

Can you be more specific about this crossover product? Who makes it?

It's a Rane MX-22 modified to drop its frequency adjustment range from
about 100 Hz to 3.2 KHz, to 50 Hz to 1.6 Khz (add 6 small
capacitors-schematic and pictorals available from the www.rane.com web
site.).

The MX-22's actual frequency adjustment limits are more like 80 to 3.5 KHz,
so the mod would not be needed by most people. because of how my subwoofer
is positioned and the robustness of my satellites, I need to, and am
reasonably able to use a crossover in the 50-60 Hz range. Not everybody
needs to or should go that low.

Are there any negative effects of using it?

IME, nothing audible. The MX-22 is a component that was designed for an
audio production environment, so its inputs and outputs are all balanced XLR
connectors. At the point where it is inserted into my system, the other
components are balanced, so it fits in nicely. See a thread from a week or
so ago about using so-called DJ amps (actually, amps designed for
professional use) in home audio systems for more details.

Other than the connector issues, which is addressed with connecting cables,
the MX-22 could fit in a purely consumer-oriented system quite nicely. It
has a L+R output with back-panel level control for the low frequency side of
the crossover.

The major advantage of the MX-22 for me is that has just one knob for
setting the crossover frequency for both channels. This means that I can
easily check out the audible effects of changing the crossover frequency.

IMO, a properly-executed crossover should sound pretty much the same over a
reasonable range of frequencies. This indicates to me that a frequency
chosen in this range is relatively non-critical. This in turn suggests that
the relevant choices are nicely centered in their optimal ranges.