# Noob Needs Help - "Crossovers for Dummies?"



## Guest (Aug 27, 2008)

Hello all. I've been considering entering the realm of DIY Speaker building since the late 80's, but have lacked the space and resources until recently. (I still have some old issues of Speaker Builder Magazine from 89!) Anyway, I've recently gotten more serious in my pursuit and have slowly assembled all necessary tools to complete my mission (Bosch 4100 table saw, Craftsman plunge router, etc.) I'm a fairly competant woodworker who is many years out of practice, but eager to restart. 
The primary obstical I'll need to overcome involves crossover design and assembly. Quite frankly, I'm very ignorant to all but the most basic details of this topic. I've seen many detailed schematics and photos throughout this site, but I have no idea what does what or why. (I don't even know what all the squiggly lines mean!:gah It's possible, if provided a crossover BOM, I may be able to construct a copy that may or may not work, but I'd like to gain a much better understanding of what I'm gettin in to. I know how to solder from years of racing electric RC vehicles, but that's the only feather in my cap when it comes to crossover construction.
I just purchased the Louspeaker Design Cookbook from Madisound, which I'm sure may help my cause, but any additional resources will be greatly appreciated. I know I'm way out of my league in terms of diy and general audio knowledge, so thanks in advance for your help and your patience. 
ps- I've preformed quite a few different searches on varous forums, but nothing I've found breaks down the topic on a "101" type level. Thanks again!


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## jeremy7 (Feb 7, 2008)

youll have your hands full with your new book "loudspeaker design cookbook",its got a good crossover chapter, but if you want more than that without purchasing more books try a broad google search of "passive crossover", ive found a lot of good sites. some are advanced, but some are "101" good luck


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

Crossover design.. eek! :scared:

In all seriousness, there is just a LOT to it and all I can tell you to do is read read read.

Here are just a few websites I've found. Some are good, some are ok.. I'll leave that to the experts. Anyway, here they are.


http://sound.westhost.com/lr-passive.htm
http://sound.westhost.com/ptd.htm
http://sound.westhost.com/doppler.htm
http://www.pvconsultants.com/audio/crossover/pcd.htm
http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Sysdes/Crossove_Design.htm
http://www.termpro.com/articles/xover2.html
http://www.bcae1.com/xoorder.htm
http://www.rane.com/note160.html

It'll give you an idea of what you're up against.

My "go to" answer for your kind of situation is to build an already established kit and use their crossover. You get the satisfaction of building it yourself without the headache of designing a proper crossover.

Whichever way you go, let us know what you end up doing.. and pictures! :nerd:

JCD


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

Mike, 

You are in for a challenge for sure. That was my hardest part of speakerbuilding. I purchased Crossover Pro 3 and it has an upgradeable driver database that gives you all of the specs for the drivers, and all you do is choose your drivers and type of crossover, and it does the rest for you. 

As a newbie at it, you will need to spend several hours playing with it until you figure it out. There are so many other variables too that you can add like filters and etc., so the help pages will be your saviour.

There are several options in addition to the basic crossover you need to study like the above poster just mentioned, like 1st through 4th order crossover and etc. (Expensive ribbon tweets usually needs a 4th order to keep from blowing them. Spend some web time learning notch filters, crossovers, types of crossovers, slopes, and etc. There's a lot to know, but you can produce a fine sounding speaker sometimes by chance on the first try with good software and the right driver specs plugged into the database.

Go to my website and visit my center speaker page and you will find a .pdf download file in a large button. You can either download it or just click on it. The program tells you what caps, inductors, and resistors to use, and provides the diagram and shows you where to place them. It also gives you the response graphs. It gets easier with more studying. www.speakerhobby.com The information sheets in the .pdf are the results that Crossover Pro gave me and printed out with a very professional look. I have the finished crossover after I built it located at the bottom of the page.

I'm running Vista 64 and it works well on my system, as well as on my other XP system.

I used to get others to do my crossover work, but I wanted to learn it myself so I just dug in. I kept getting crossovers that sounded horrible and I couldn't afford to hire a pro, so I was left with two drawers of caps, inductors, and resistors. That's when I decided to purcase the software. Now it's a snap. It just takes dedication and time to learn. My center speaker crossover was matched with Crossover Pro 3 and some engineer friends used Vance Dickason's numbers from the cookbook and we came up with some different values, but the specs were within .5 tolerance, which speaks very well for Crossover Pro 3. 

You can get it at PartsExpress.com. There is another one I beleive called Easycad for $239 or so, but it is really designed for the advanced techie. 

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

You can also get Bass Box Pro as a bundled package with Crossover Pro 3 and they work together.

The cookbook which I also purchased, was way over my head when I started, but I was able to pick out some bits and pieces of tech help out of it.

Mike Cason


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2008)

Guys, thanks so much for the replies. This will be a great start and I can tell I've got my work cut out for me! For my first project, I was thinking of some Nat P's. Is anyone selling pre-assembled crossovers for those? I think I might take JCD's advice for my first build and purchase them outright until I build enough knowledge to do them myself. 
Thanks again, you guys! Once I jump in, I'll be sure to post some pics!

Mike


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

hifisyd01 said:


> Guys, thanks so much for the replies. This will be a great start and I can tell I've got my work cut out for me! For my first project, I was thinking of some Nat P's. Is anyone selling pre-assembled crossovers for those? I think I might take JCD's advice for my first build and purchase them outright until I build enough knowledge to do them myself.
> Thanks again, you guys! Once I jump in, I'll be sure to post some pics!
> 
> Mike


Mike,

From what I am hearing about your enthusiasm, make your own! 

I've made it simple and am providing a photograph that should make it simple for you with the Natalie P.

Sure you you can do this......just leave a little lead length of the wire on the parts in case you mess up and just fix it. The pride of doing your own is almost as good as the sound! :T


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Even after doing all the necessary reading, bassbox pro/x-over pro really simplify the designing process. While there models aren't perfect, they do a good job of getting you into the ballpark so you can fine tune them by ear or with testing equipment.


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

I built the NatP tower version following the picture above for the Xover. You cant go wrong.:T


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## Guest (Sep 5, 2008)

Thanks for the replies, everyone! You've given me that much needed boost in confidence to go ahead and jump in. I'll let you all know how it goes! :bigsmile:


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

Lookin forward to hearing back from you fellow. :bigsmile: 

Mike


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## Odougbo (Oct 16, 2011)

XO's can drive you :coocoo:

* can take months to get right - but what's the hurry

* buy kit with xo design or pre built

* NEVER, install xo in speaker, bolt on back of speaker or bottom tray; bread board for now and don't cut leads on parts.

* Can pay Madisound $30 for a LEAP design (pay $30 to see what they come up with) http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/xover-design

[do have to use drivers that on there website - they have plenty to chose from :yikes:]

* xo "parts" could be 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the project

* use 14gauge coils for woofers, sidewinder if on budget.

* use terminal for parts that may be switched - e.g. tweeter resistor - Post #45 http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...4-crossovers-where-start-5.html#axzz2JLympGq1


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