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High order crossovers

Do or can high order crossovers rob a speaker system of more dynamics?
koestner
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,842 posts
 
good advice, go listen to any top rated Vandersteen or Thiel or Dunlavey for that matter....they are all very sophisticated designs using top notch drivers, components and cabinets....the filter is hyper important...but the system, and system engineering matter....

btw a lot of the output in so called high efficiency designs is trash ( distortion ).... which the efficiency spec takes no note of.....
erik_squires
15,824 posts
 
btw a lot of the output in so called high efficiency designs is trash ( distortion ).... which the efficiency spec takes no note of.....

Maybe true, but our hearts and ears buy speakers, not test gear, so it is worth listening with your geek off. 

But I do think that listening to Vandersteens as exemplars of low order crossovers is a good idea if that is your question. Of course, you can also listen to full-range (i.e. single driver) zero crossover speakers to see if they float your boat in terms of dynamics. 

Or for something truly different, build the Seas A26 kit:

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2-way-speaker-kits/seas-a26-10-2-way-kit-pair-based-on-the-cla...

In terms of crossover slopes, it doesn't get much simpler than this. 

Best,

E
c1ferrari
464 posts
 
Duke, @audiokinesis,
I greatly appreciate the elucidation.Thank you.
Sam
audiokinesis
2,723 posts
 

@erik_squires wrote:  "I feel as if low order crossovers were actually significantly better in dynamics I'd have heard it. "

I think true (acoustic) first order is more dynamic, ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL. 

All else is seldom equal. 

There is a tradeoff relationship between bandwidth and efficiency, and a true first-order crossover calls for a LOT of bandwidth.  For a system with a 2 kHz true first-order crossover, we'd want the midwoofer to be approximately flat to 8 kHz, and the tweeter to be approximately flat to 500 Hz (with adequate thermal and mechanical power handling).  We have to trade off efficiency to get this sort of bandwidth.  Thus we don't see high efficiency speakers with true first-order (acoustic) crossovers.  

Pick your poison.

My current poison of choice starts out with a 6 dB per octave initial rolloff and then accelerates to 24 dB per octave.  This seems to work pretty well with some combinations of high efficiency drivers.

Duke  

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