Do most manu. buy or build their x-overs?


There is quite a bit of discussion concerning speaker driver manufacturers (scanspeak, vifa, morel, etc.) and who uses what. But in general I would say that drivers account for less than half of the overall performance of the speaker. The crossover is a HUGE factor, in many cases perhaps more important than the drivers themselves.
So, generally, do most manufacturers of high end speakers purchase their crossovers in the same manner? Or do they build them to suit the selected drivers?
If they are purchasing them, who are the big names? While I can name off a dozen driver manu. I can't think of one x-over manu., only a few designs named for their inventors (presumably).
jb3

Showing 1 response by jmcgrogan2

As far as I know, most high end crossovers are designed and tweaked by the speaker designer. That's the secret. There wouldn't be an art to it if it was just making boxes and plugging in drivers. I've heard that many speaker designers spend many hours listening just to pick a better capacitor or inductor for their crossover board. Franco Serblin of Sonus Faber is just one of the pickier designers. Tweaking the crossover is what they also call 'voicing' a speaker. Just like tube rolling in a tube amp/preamp. Selecting different components can change the sound dramatically.

Regards,
John