Passive car audio crossover for speaker cabinet?
Satnam Singh
(woofer, mid) to play an electric bass guitar through. Don't need
stereo. The speakers are a good match and an 800hz crossover has been
recommended to me.
Any problems using a passive crossover designed for a car stereo?
I've seen a relatively inexpensive Pyramid crossover with an 800hz
crossover point. I'd rather not have to build one myself. Since its
passive, no worry regarding dc vs ac current, right?
I'm not looking for super high fidelity, nor professional grade
performance. Just have a plan for a bass cabinet with relatively low
volume, using hi fi speakers (rather than musical instrument
speakers).
Thanks for any advice
Satnam Singh
TCS
>I'm making a speaker cabinet using a couple of Peerless drivers
>(woofer, mid) to play an electric bass guitar through. Don't need
>stereo. The speakers are a good match and an 800hz crossover has been
>recommended to me.
>Any problems using a passive crossover designed for a car stereo?
most home audio drivers are 8 ohm and most car audio drivers are 4 or 6.
Hook up an 8ohm driver to a crossover designed for a 4 ohm load and the
crossover frequency will be doubled or halved.
Simon Byrnand
news:slrnav7q3d.rmi.The....@linux.adamf.dimensional.com...
> In article <8e43e615.02120...@posting.google.com>, Satnam Singh
wrote:
> >I'm making a speaker cabinet using a couple of Peerless drivers
> >(woofer, mid) to play an electric bass guitar through. Don't need
> >stereo. The speakers are a good match and an 800hz crossover has been
> >recommended to me.
>
> >Any problems using a passive crossover designed for a car stereo?
> most home audio drivers are 8 ohm and most car audio drivers are 4 or 6.
>
> Hook up an 8ohm driver to a crossover designed for a 4 ohm load and the
> crossover frequency will be doubled or halved.
Nice try, but no cigar.
The actual effect is far more complex than that, and depends on the type of
crossover.
To give but a couple of examples, in the case of 6dB/octave crossovers, the
crossover frequency will indeed shift quite a lot, but for any higher order
filter such as a 12dB/octave the crossover frequency will remain largely the
same, but the shape of the reponse curve at the crossover frequency will
change.
A 12dB/Octave filter designed for a flat reponse with a 4 ohm load will
exhibit a peaked, underdamped response at the crossover frequency with an 8
ohm load...
Regards,
Simon
DH
> "TCS" wrote in message
> Satnam Singh wrote:
> > >Any problems using a passive crossover designed for a car stereo?
> > most home audio drivers are 8 ohm and most car audio drivers are 4 or 6.
> > Hook up an 8ohm driver to a crossover designed for a 4 ohm load and the
> > crossover frequency will be doubled or halved.
> To give but a couple of examples, in the case of 6dB/octave crossovers, the
> crossover frequency will indeed shift quite a lot, but for any higher order
> filter such as a 12dB/octave the crossover frequency will remain largely the
> same, but the shape of the reponse curve at the crossover frequency will
> change.
> A 12dB/Octave filter designed for a flat reponse with a 4 ohm load will
> exhibit a peaked, underdamped response at the crossover frequency with an 8
> ohm load...
This is rather interesting because I have a similar problem/question and wanted
some advice....
In the above case, does this mean for a 6db/octave crossover, that if the
crossover frequency is 700hz that it will go to either 350hz or 1400hz? What
will happen to the other crossover frequency in a 3 way crossover?
If it is a 12db/octave crossover for flat response, what will "peaked,
underdamped" soundlike? boomy and uncontrolled?
How can I tell if this is a 12db/octave or 6db/octave crossover?
I have a set of old EPI T/E 320 speakers with blown (foam surrounds are dust)
10" drivers. The speakers were originally 4 ohms (nominal). The 10" driver
measures a DC resistence of about 4.2 ohms, so I am guessing that it is probably
a 5-6 ohm driver. The speaker has a three-way crossover with crossover
frequencies of 700Hz and 3000Hz
I also want to put together a home theatre system. Almost all comsumer-grade
HT systems output to 8-16 ohm loads (speakers). So, I need 8 ohm (nominal)
speakers.
Just to fix these speakers up with rebuilt drivers or new drivers would cost
$120+, and I'd still be left with a pair of 4 ohm speakers that I cant use. If
I did it right, and put in a new crossover for an 8 ohm load, and then purchased
8 ohm drivers, then it would be pushing at least $150 and maybe more...depending
on the driver (and there would be no real thought or design that went into
it.... who knows what it would sound like...). At that point, I could go out
and purchase a couple of Yamaha bookshelf speakers and a a 10"KLH powered
subwoofer ($80 at costco AR right now) and at least be able to use it with a HT
system with some degree of confidence in final sound.
My question becomes: Is there any way to salvage this speaker for use with a
home stereo? All I have is a digital multimeter. When I measure the DC
resistence with an ohmmeter, the speaker without the driver appears to measure
about 3000kohm..... infinite as far as I am concerned. When I put the original
driver in the circuit, the speaker measures about 4.8 ohms. When I put a (known)
4 ohm mtx subwoofer in the circuit, the speaker measures 4.1 ohms. It would
appear that resistence of the speaker is mostly proportional to the load of the
bass driver (in this particular speaker/crossover. maybe in general?). EPI was
known to produce linear speakers.
I basically want to replace the original 5-6 ohms driver with an 8 ohm driver,
raise the overall speaker impedence to 8 ohms and drive them with a HT system. I
am hoping that sound wont suffer too much, and that I will still have a speaker
better than your typical home bookshelf speaker.
I could get a 10" 8ohm driver from partsexpress.com for a sealed 2.67cuft box
for $15-$40 each and salvage the speaker, but would it be as good as a brand new
$15-$40 bookshelf speaker from BestBuy?
Advice? comments?
Thanks for reading..
doug