crossover choice

[persuasion]

hi all, looking at a couple of passive crossovers but cant decide which to use to separate by bass cabs and my mid/tops, they cross over at 1.6kHz and 3.5kHz, any suggestions o which would be best??

 

[TimmyP1955]

Passive is a very inefficient way to cross over at 100Hz (which is where you need to be). Do it actively.

 

[coldnorth57]

yeah 1.6kHz is way too high for a sub to be running at. You want 120Hz or less and active is the way to go.

 

[museav]

yeah 1.6kHz is way too high for a sub to be running at. You want 120Hz or less and active is the way to go.

It may be a matter of terminology and the minimal information provided but they did say "to separate by bass cabs and my mid/tops" so that could be addressing lows to mids instead of subwoofers to full range mains. Just like the other thread, what are you trying to do and what are the specific devices involved? One cannot effectively address the questions being asked without having sufficient context.

Also keep in mind that while a crossover is addressing electrical signals, for a speaker it is how the acoustic outputs of the drivers combine that matters. That means that how the drivers convert the electrical energy to mechanical motion then couple that the the environment and convert that motion to acoustical energy as well as how the resulting acoustical energy from the drivers interacts all effect what you want to do with the crossover. There can be a great deal of effort and analysis that goes into optimizing crossovers for a specific product and/or application and while a 'generic' crossover may work, do not expect it to work like those designed and optimized for a specific application.