Crossovers

Okay, well that was all pretty helpful. In any case, it helped answer my underlying question. It seems that many people feel that lower order xovers are the "purest" method, in that due to their simplicity, they "color" the sound the least. Less components = more direct reproduction. I've seen it argued that higher order xovers can introduce more problems than they solve. So, my underlying question was, are higher order/more complicated xovers "bad"? It appears that the answer, like most things audio is, "it depends."

If I've misinterpreted anything here, please let me know. Also, is it logical to assume that as you add more drivers, the crossover necessarily becomes more complicated? (I.e., a 4-way system is going to be more complicated than a two-way)

-Chris

Actually, I would have no intentions of altering a speaker's crossover, or even basing speaker choice on the crossover type. Ultimately, I'm asking more out of general curiosity, given that there's so many different setups out there.

In the end, I'm going to buy whatever sounds the best to me. But, I like to have SOME understanding of how things work.

So again, "it depends," right? At least now I have a little better understand of what's going on, which is really all that I wanted. I guess no one's going to come down definitively on one side or the order? It seems as if the complication of the crossover doesn't really translate into a speaker sounding "better or "worse," and what's really important is the execution.