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RC crossover design

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iampoor

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Hi
I'm looking at building the cheapest RC crossover possible. It will need to handle about 150watts and have a crossover point of 1000hz. It will be going to a woofer and a tweeter.
I'm not really looking for anything speicial, just tossing some old speakers into PA cbas to make a few bucks, so the cheaper the better.

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
Do you mean an LC crossover to direct highs to the tweeter and lows to the woofer. Or a really cheap crossover which uses just a capacitor to block the low frequencies from the tweeter?
 
Most tweeters cannot survive 1kHz at 150W. Maybe a horn high frequency driver? They sound awful.
 
Most tweeters cannot survive 1kHz at 150W. Maybe a horn high frequency driver? They sound awful.

As you should know well AG, the tweeter doesn't get 150W - only a tiny fraction of it, depending on the crossover frequency and the style of music. Horns are also the best sounding speakers you can get, as the cone is matched to the air by the horn, which is an acoustic transformer.

For the OP, here's a site which tells you all you need to know:

Shavano Music Online - Do It Yourself Construction Articles
 
When I was doing PA systems, Altec Lansing horns had a very bumpy response and no high frequencies (above 5khz) that required a massive amount of equalization boost to be flat to only 10kHz with nothing in the highest octave. Here is a typical smoothed frequency response:
 

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Do you mean an LC crossover to direct highs to the tweeter and lows to the woofer. Or a really cheap crossover which uses just a capacitor to block the low frequencies from the tweeter?

Hmmm, the first option sounds like a much better idea. WOuld the second option hurt the driver, or would that still be a good idea?
If so, do you know any cheap sites for inductors? The only ones I've found are like 20$, I think I'm looking in the wrong place?
And also, I thought you could use a resistor in place of an inductor in a really cheap crossover...or am I mistaken?

@AudioGuru, ah yes, it is a horn, my bad.
SOund quality is not of concern, as I'm offloading these to someone on craigllist, just to make a few bucks, and plus, I couldnt really find another affordable option for the drivers I was using etc.

@Nigel, thanks for that link, that site does have all the info it seems. :D
 
@AudioGuru, ah yes, it is a horn, my bad.
SOund quality is not of concern, as I'm offloading these to someone on craigllist, just to make a few bucks, and plus, I couldnt really find another affordable option for the drivers I was using etc.

Really! You have no problem selling garbage to someone on the internet?
 
Really! You have no problem selling garbage to someone on the internet?

To start with, the cabinets are battered to death.
And I'm basically selling them for the price of the parts I'm putting into them, I just want to get rid of them and not throw them away, and hope someone can use them.

When I'm selling them for like 75$ for a pair of 15inch cabinets, I really have no problem selling something thats honestly not that great. Its something t practice on and beat on.
If I was lying about them, and marketing them incorrectly, then I would have a problem with it, but I'm going to be honest with however buys them.

SO before you try calling me out and making me look dishonest, maybe you should ask man. I'm not offended really, just please dont draw conclusions that quickly. :)
 
When I was doing PA systems, Altec Lansing horns had a very bumpy response and no high frequencies (above 5khz) that required a massive amount of equalization boost to be flat to only 10kHz with nothing in the highest octave. Here is a typical smoothed frequency response:

Use better quality horns then! :D

I would suggest those were purely for voice tannoy systems, and not general use.
 
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Really! You have no problem selling garbage to someone on the internet?
Haven't you seen and heard the garbage speakers that are sold in home entertainment equipment stores??

I picked up two huge Sony speakers on the curb on garbage day thinking they might be good.
Both had their tweeters blown. The tweeters were tiny (2") ordinary speakers rated at only 4W. The crossover network was a single capacitor. The 10" woofers have a very high resonant frequency and tiny magnets. I will use the good enclosures with new speaker drivers.
 
The Canadian figure skating awards are on TV right now. The horn tweeters in the arena sound awful.
The response is full of peaks, nulls and resonances. The high frequency distortion is very high. During classical music I can't identify which instruments are playing. Is that a violin, a trumpet or is it the audience cheering?? The announcers sound perfect on my TV.
I think it is a Bose Pro system.
 
audiguru, the floor is made from one of the most unfriendly acoustical substances on earth in an giant open air arena with no acoustical baffling. I'd love to see how they could make an area like that actually sound good =O
 
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I was an engineer with a sound contractor and with a Pro-Audio manufacturer and our sound systems in arenas and theaters sound excellent.
Some rock concerts also sound excellent. My hearing is still excellent. Some sound system engineers are deaf.

The main symphony and opera theater in the big city near my home was built with a peaks, dips and a very distorted sound system. It was replaced with an excellent one.
 
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