Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr - Tweakers' Asylum

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Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover

In Reply to: passive crossover vs. active crossover posted by Metro_Noam on September 30, 2005 at 17:31:31:

If you are going to build a pair of speakers which have more than just the one (multi-range) driver, you have 3 choices to split the signal between drivers:
1. A "normal" passive crossover. This comes between the amp and the drivers. In a normal commercial product it's inside the cabinet but you would probably get better sound by putting it in an external box.
It is made from (typically) large inductors and a heap of capacitors - 1st, 2nd or 3rd order slopes.
1b. A variation on this idea is to "passively bi-amp" - ie. have 2 feeds from your pre amp, feeding 2 stereo power amps; the output from one amp feeds both the lowpass crossovers and the output from the other feeds the highpass crossovers.
2. A "line-level passive crossover". This goes between the pre amp and the power amps; the advantage of this is that the drivers are directly connected to the power amps - no big inductors to "loosen its grip" on the bass driver!
It typically consists of small caps and resistors - you should be able to search AA and find the circuits. It's best done as a 1st-order crossover but you could also do it for 2nd order - but no higher. Component values are set for the input inpedance of your power amps, as well as the crossover frequency.
Go see the Marchand site - their PLLC uses small inductors instead of caps.
3. An active crossover. This also goes between the pre amp and the power amps - so likewise, the drivers are directly connected to the power amps!
Regards,
Andy

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - passive crossover vs. active crossover - Metro_Noam 17:31:31 09/30/05 (7)

Nelson Pass - djk 01:15:45 10/01/05 (0)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr 19:44:58 09/30/05 (5)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - kyle 12:23:16 10/01/05 (1)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr 14:45:17 10/01/05 (0)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - Metro_Noam 01:20:35 10/01/05 (2)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr 02:20:09 10/01/05 (1)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - Metro_Noam 23:38:24 10/01/05 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr 19:44:58 09/30/05 (5)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - kyle 12:23:16 10/01/05 (1)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr 14:45:17 10/01/05 (0)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - Metro_Noam 01:20:35 10/01/05 (2)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - andyr 02:20:09 10/01/05 (1)

Re: passive crossover vs. active crossover - Metro_Noam 23:38:24 10/01/05 (0)

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