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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 6 responses by kenjit

kenjit
1,771 posts
 
Are you telling me you can't hear any difference when you go from 130hz to 50hz on the crossover? 
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
Erik is wrong. He doesn't know what rolloff the sub naturally has. It should be quite flat easily up to 200 Hz if not much higher. 

The subwoofer may be performing as designed. Either way you're not happy so you'll need to replace the plate amp. Minidsp won't fix it. 


kenjit
1,771 posts
 
hes all wrong dont listen to erik tufnel. subs should be custom tuned BY EAR. Same with the SNR1s. He tuned em by measurements and cant figure out why they sound so bad! 
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
Erik and I may disagree on some of the finer points of subwoofers, but we both think they can be well worth messing with.
The disagreements are not on finer points. They are on the basic facts. 

It's no secret that Duke is a proponent of the so called DBA bass technology. Erik however is an opponent of this. Here is what Erik has to say about it:
I am no longer a fan of this idea due to the fan boys and how cultish they have become.
Please read details directly from the vendor as I am not a fan and therefore won't do it justice.

In this thread, here is what Duke had to say about the measurements OP posted up:
Your measurements look to me like they are in the ballpark for a variable-frequency second-order lowpass filter. 
Here is what Erik said
No, the measurements do not look like very good representations of crossover behavior when changing the crossover point. However, since there are two subs involved, I can’t tell what is going on.
In conclusion these are diametrically opposed views. They are the worst of enemies and any suggestion otherwise is disingenuous.
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
You can not send a fixed level signal from your dac to the subs while adjusting the speaker volume from your integrated amp and ever expect them to be at the proper level to blend.
yes you can. you just adjust the sub every time you adjust the volume. 
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
That is how adjustable sub crossovers should work, except for the volume problem.
hogwash. Why would anybody design an electronic lowpass filter with a variable slope and a fixed crossover point? Thats useless. What you want is a variable crossover point and fixed slope. Even better would be both variable. 
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