Hello everyone.

I am currently looking for a 2 way active crossover. This is to be used in a
traditional, bi-amplified, home stereo arrangement. It doesn't really need a
lot of fancy features, although a sweep tunable crossover freq would be
neat. I have two different driver models in mind. One of them would work
well somewhere in the 80 to 200 Hz range; the other in the 750Hz to 2.5KHz
range. Price is somewhat a factor. I've never seen any of them, but the
Behringer line looks pretty nice. The simplest one they offer should do the
trick. Honestly, I'd rather have regular RCA style ins and outs. Any other
suggestions?

James. )

James Lehman wrote:


I am currently looking for a 2 way active crossover. This is to be used in a
traditional, bi-amplified, home stereo arrangement. It doesn't really need a
lot of fancy features, although a sweep tunable crossover freq would be
neat. I have two different driver models in mind. One of them would work
well somewhere in the 80 to 200 Hz range; the other in the 750Hz to 2.5KHz
range. Price is somewhat a factor. I've never seen any of them, but the
Behringer line looks pretty nice. The simplest one they offer should do the
trick. Honestly, I'd rather have regular RCA style ins and outs. Any other
suggestions?

As far as I can determine, the Behringer units are "professional" level
devices. i.e. they're meant to be used with balanced +4 dbu signals,
not the unbalanced -10 dbV signals that you find in home stereo system.
So it's more than just the connectorology that differentiates them
from a typical RCA-jack device.

That said, yes it will work. You'll give up a few db of S/N due to
whomping the gain structure around, but it probably won't be noticable
unless you put your ear right up to the speaker.

I own a couple of Behringer products, and they're OK. Good bang for the
buck, and fairly reliable.

I'm not really sure what other models to suggest - I really don't have
much experience with home stereo active crossovers. It's kind of a
"super audiophile" endeavour and relatively uncommon, although it should
be much more common than it is - active bi-amping will do much more to
improve the sound than "designer" cables costing several times as much.
Anyway, I'm unaware of a plain-vanilla -10 consumer level active
crossover that's not too expensive.

BTW, if you do get the Behringer, wire up the connectors as follows:
input: tip of RCA to pin 2 of the XLR
shield of RCA to pin 1 and 3 of XLR
output: tip of RCA to pin 2 of the XLR
shield of RCA to pin 1 of XLR (leave pin 3 floating)
Then back off the output by about 6 db to compensate for the difference
between +4 dbu and -10 dbV (it's not a 14 db difference as you might expect)

Good luck.

//Walt

Excellent information!

Thank you very much.

Both of the designs that I have in mind are completely home brew. They will
both use the same concept for the woofer. It is two isobaric pairs of 8 inch
poly / butyl, kind of like this: http://www.akrobiz.com/james/estie1.html
but this time the woofers are coupled back to back and wired out of phase.
Both designs have different cabinet geometry, but are more or less that same
volume and port freq. One design uses a single Selenium compression driver
and horn that is said to be within 6db from 800Hz to 20KHz, with very good
phase characteristics and 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion that is actually
low enough to chart it and brag about it on the spec sheet. It also has the
added advantage of being 107dB @ 1W @1M. The other system design actually
uses 2 woofer boxes, for a total of 8 drivers per side. The high end unit is
more like a single driver full range speaker. You really have to see it to
believe it. It is 36 little (2" x 3") TV speakers in a 6 foot line. This
thing is unbelievably sensitive. It is too loud at 10 or 20 watts. The near
field effect is much bigger than most listening rooms. The time / phase
accuracy is stunning. Both of these designs are meant to use a good sized
power amp for the low end and a super clean, not so powerful high end amp.

Have a great day! James. )


"Walt" wrote in message
...
James Lehman wrote:


I am currently looking for a 2 way active crossover. This is to be used
in a
traditional, bi-amplified, home stereo arrangement. It doesn't really
need a
lot of fancy features, although a sweep tunable crossover freq would be
neat. I have two different driver models in mind. One of them would work
well somewhere in the 80 to 200 Hz range; the other in the 750Hz to
2.5KHz
range. Price is somewhat a factor. I've never seen any of them, but the
Behringer line looks pretty nice. The simplest one they offer should do
the
trick. Honestly, I'd rather have regular RCA style ins and outs. Any
other
suggestions?

As far as I can determine, the Behringer units are "professional" level
devices. i.e. they're meant to be used with balanced +4 dbu signals,
not the unbalanced -10 dbV signals that you find in home stereo system.
So it's more than just the connectorology that differentiates them
from a typical RCA-jack device.

That said, yes it will work. You'll give up a few db of S/N due to
whomping the gain structure around, but it probably won't be noticable
unless you put your ear right up to the speaker.

I own a couple of Behringer products, and they're OK. Good bang for the
buck, and fairly reliable.

I'm not really sure what other models to suggest - I really don't have
much experience with home stereo active crossovers. It's kind of a
"super audiophile" endeavour and relatively uncommon, although it should
be much more common than it is - active bi-amping will do much more to
improve the sound than "designer" cables costing several times as much.
Anyway, I'm unaware of a plain-vanilla -10 consumer level active
crossover that's not too expensive.

BTW, if you do get the Behringer, wire up the connectors as follows:
input: tip of RCA to pin 2 of the XLR
shield of RCA to pin 1 and 3 of XLR
output: tip of RCA to pin 2 of the XLR
shield of RCA to pin 1 of XLR (leave pin 3 floating)
Then back off the output by about 6 db to compensate for the difference
between +4 dbu and -10 dbV (it's not a 14 db difference as you might
expect)

Good luck.

//Walt

I'm sure that a search through audio hobbyist magazines (Audio Amateur?)
will turn up some op-amp based active crossover designs. I used a crossover
made by Dave Hadaway of dB Systems ca 1978 to cross over four KLH 9 panels
driven by 4 Dyna MKIII's to a Hartley 24" subwoofer driven by a Tigersaurus
250wpc power amp (no, it never blew up) and the setup was approved of by
our local golden ears in an extensive listening test.

dB Systems was still producing these crossovers the last time I looked; they
are available in 2 or 3 channel stereo versions, some with summed bass outputs.

One advantage of at least some versions of the Behringer is that they allow
the introduction of different time delays for the various outputs which
allow one to get optimal output from loudspeakers that are physically
impossible to physically align (such as the pair of JBL 075/375 + 2309-2310
horns/LE15A-PR15 systems I'm desultorily playing with.

Mike Squires
--

Mike Squires (mikes at cs.indiana.edu) 317 233 9456 (w) 812 333 6564 (h)
mikes at siralan.org 546 N Park Ridge Rd., Bloomington, IN 47408

Thanks Mike.

I have already home brewed a classic 24dB/oct. Linkwitz-Riley active
(op-amp) crossover for this system:
http://www.akrobiz.com/speakers/metal_index.html

Which is fine, but if I can get a factory made box that is just as good or
better for less than $100, I'd be crazy to make another one.

As far as time and phase alignment goes, my horn design is pretty well
baffle / voice coil aligned and is crossed at 800Hz, so I can get away with
a little error. The line array is crossed at probably 120Hz, so I have a lot
more wavelength to play with.

Take care. James. )



"Michael Squires" wrote in message
...
I'm sure that a search through audio hobbyist magazines (Audio Amateur?)
will turn up some op-amp based active crossover designs. I used a
crossover
made by Dave Hadaway of dB Systems ca 1978 to cross over four KLH 9 panels
driven by 4 Dyna MKIII's to a Hartley 24" subwoofer driven by a
Tigersaurus
250wpc power amp (no, it never blew up) and the setup was approved of by
our local golden ears in an extensive listening test.

dB Systems was still producing these crossovers the last time I looked;
they
are available in 2 or 3 channel stereo versions, some with summed bass
outputs.

One advantage of at least some versions of the Behringer is that they
allow
the introduction of different time delays for the various outputs which
allow one to get optimal output from loudspeakers that are physically
impossible to physically align (such as the pair of JBL 075/375 +
2309-2310
horns/LE15A-PR15 systems I'm desultorily playing with.

Mike Squires
--

Mike Squires (mikes at cs.indiana.edu) 317 233 9456 (w) 812 333 6564
(h)
mikes at siralan.org 546 N Park Ridge Rd., Bloomington, IN
47408

Look at following sites. you can get kit or assembled. From simple
to 4th order tube xover

http://sound.westhost.com/project09.htm

http://www.marchandelec.com/

I use xm9's and a Basis (linkwitz expansion) unit in house and xm1's
in car.



On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 22:09:01 GMT, "James Lehman"
wrote:

Hello everyone.

I am currently looking for a 2 way active crossover. This is to be used in a
traditional, bi-amplified, home stereo arrangement. It doesn't really need a
lot of fancy features, although a sweep tunable crossover freq would be
neat. I have two different driver models in mind. One of them would work
well somewhere in the 80 to 200 Hz range; the other in the 750Hz to 2.5KHz
range. Price is somewhat a factor. I've never seen any of them, but the
Behringer line looks pretty nice. The simplest one they offer should do the
trick. Honestly, I'd rather have regular RCA style ins and outs. Any other
suggestions?

James. )