How to design a high end crossover…


My joke as the sun rises…


Requirements for the casual designer:

$4k worth of reference premium inductors, capacitors and resistors just laying about…

Zero out speakers on manufacturers specs before 5 pm.

Add 1/5 of excellent bourbon, branch water, natch.

Test each driver on a, in the old days scope, Ha! 
Computer program or four…

Fiddle with 1st-4th level crossovers for each driver, in this case, in a three way system.

Play your favorite test tracks, Opera thru Rock, change X-over components, pushing and pulling, repeat till the sun rises, or the victim slays the opponent, (manufactures x-over), on the audio analyzer, then refine with the ear, (having been to every concert on that albums release), knowing what the artist intended…

Thank Mom or Dad for the leisure afforded to you to do this ad infinitem.

Love the newfound resolution…

Plan B: Make money, know when to quit, play with this stuff as you personal inside joke.

Wait for post to be retracted… Go to hammock…
128x128william53b
This is why a speaker is good or not. IMO, the hardest thing to accomplish is High End Audio. It is v far from just selecting the best components. It takes an artist to integrate drivers, crossovers and enclosures. To make the final speaker sound like music is rare.
For an amateur to accomplish this and, even, professionals with years of development.
Add 1/5 of excellent bourbon, branch water, natch.

Is this guy joking? 

Anyone with a fifth (or even 1/5) of excellent bourbon under his belt, yeah, I think he is joking.
Well, I didn't drink the whole bottle!

But yes, joking a bit.

First time in years I worked on a project and was surprised to look out the window and see the sun was rising.
I new one XO designer that would tune each XO to the cabinet and drivers he was using. The left and right crossovers very seldom looked alike. When the drivers were pulled and matched top to bottom and left to right as close as his staff could get, they would load wire and seal the drivers.

The Passive XOs were point to point mounted to 3/4 pre formed MDF or HDF boards. He used two LPads and parallel quasi 2nd order for a 3/4 way.

Here is the real trick, he would put an untuned xo in, position the speakers in the same place every time and take tone burst readings.

He would add a small cap in the band pass to one side only, and normally unwind and remove a small amount on a hand wound inductor (made from a real dry 1/2" dowel and hand wound copper wire 20-18 ga) It had 16-20 raps. He would remove 3-5 wraps on a dowel, and retest the DB levels. That is how he balanced the DB level in the BP and lower or raise the pass side with a small cap of the same quality.
It’s not a bypass cap (super expensive), it’s a trim cap normally a long life poly or something.. It act differently, the same with the inductor.. It’s for trim ONLY doesn’t effect the SQ just the tonal balance..

THAT is how I learned to TUNE an XO. Making one it’s not rocket science but, you really need to be able to TUNE and know HOW to tune your work for a SOTA audiophile quality XO.. Production crap who cares..

The guy could build and tune 3 pairs of XO in a night, after spending all day selling, ordering and talking to customers..

The staff would ready the call in orders on the spot.. or paint the inside with sound coat or black hole or the different wire or wool vs fiberglass in the mids. 3 guys I think Brian C, was 1. RIP.

I stopped in after work 100 times, he would be there trimming OXs or making them or writing an article.. or getting ready for CES. the soldering iron he used, you could have soldered gutters it was so big.... no kidding.. ;-)

Regards