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Is this how a Subwoofer Crossover is supposed to work?

I bought two Starke SW12 subwoofers that I installed.  So far I'm not particularly happy with them.  They are way too loud even with the volume set almost to off.  More importantly, I'm having trouble integrating them into my system and I'm wondering if that is because their crossover setting is really functioning as I understand a crossover should. Attached please find measurements from Room Equalization Wizard with SPL graphs of the two subs (no speakers) taken at my listening position with the crossover set at 50 Hz, 90 Hz, and 130 Hz. Ignore the peaks and dips which I assume are due to room nodes.  All of those settings appear to actually have the same crossover point of 50 Hz. All that changes is the slope of the rolloff in sound levels. This isn't how I thought a properly designed crossover was supposed to work.  I thought the frequency the levels would start to roll off would change, i.e. flat to 50 hz then a sharp drop, flat to 90 hz then a sharp drop, etc. etc..  But Starke says this is how a subwoofer crossover is supposed to work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8x4cr32pagwg48i/Two%20Subs%20Different%20Crossover%20Points%20No%20Speaker...
Any experts on here with an opinion about this?  Is it possible to buy an inexpensive active crossover that I could use in place of what is built into these subs?
pinwa

Showing 1 response by creditingkarma

creditingkarma
102 posts
 
Pinwa 

I think that the biggest problem could be how you are running the setup control wise. If you are sending the dac signal directly to the subs and controlling the speaker volume with the amp. I suggest you try setting the amp to one set level maybe a bit over 50% and leaving it there all the time. Then dialbin the subs and use the volume control on the dac exclusively. Yoy will need to split the rca output of the dac to send to the subs and amp so the are both seeing the same output voltage. 

This will save you possible headaches. It seems like how you are currently running them, you are basically trying to set them up everything you change the volume level on the amp. 

Looking at the initial graphs it also seems like some of the issue is room gain below 50hz too. What was the spl you did the measurements at? I am asking as I have a room gain of about 10db @30hz in my space.
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