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#1
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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? Suggestions for active crossover ?
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. ) |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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? Suggestions for active crossover ?
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 |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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? Suggestions for active crossover ?
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 |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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? Suggestions for active crossover ?
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 |
#5
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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? Suggestions for active crossover ?
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 |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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? Suggestions for active crossover ?
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. ) |
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