Crossover frequency curves - what should I be looking for?


I see impressive looking graphs of crossover frequency curves are sloping either at the beginning or the end.

To me they reflect a graph of varying volume across the frequency spectrum. For bass drivers they slope down toward the right side and then for upper range drivers they slope upward. And then there's a point were they merge together which I guess represents the crossover point.

OK this is all fancy and nice, but what am I to make of this and is this of any value to anyone? What should I be looking for?

jumia

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

That’s a really good question, and the answer is that it’s highly complicated. :) Why don’t you get into speaker building where you can learn all of this and build a nice pair for yourself??

<< he said with an evil twinkle in his eye >>

By themselves crossover points and slopes tell us little, and some may be arguable. For instance, steep slopes may improve off-axis listening but time co-incident speakers (like Vandersteen or Thiel) may deliberately use very shallow slopes.

As a buyer, you should be much more interested in the impedance curve as that's a good indicator of how easy a speaker will be to match with a variety of amplifiers. 

I wrote a little bit about crossovers here. It’s not a direct answer to your question but perhaps it will help get you started:

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2016/12/crossover-basics-driver-response.html