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testing a speaker's crossover

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Just wondering if anyone knows the best way to test a speakers crossover. I have a pair of cerwin vega speakers that are very old. Years ago, I noticed a burning smell out of one of them after playing them for a long time, (loudly). I removed the control pad, and smoke was coming out of the speaker cabinet. The control pad consists of two controls. A treble adjust and a midrange adjust. At the time these were turned down, (not allowing full output). I suspect that one of the pots has melted?

After this the speaker never sounded good. The coils were not blown at this time but shortly afterwards, the woofer needed to be repaired (re-coned). I am worried that the speaker is not getting the right frequency which may cause the expensive woofer to go again.

I have heard that you can download test tones and measure the output of the crossover with an oscilloscope. Is this true, if so how? I have the use of a scope if needed.
 
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Just wondering if anyone knows the best way to test a speakers crossover. I have a pair of cerwin vega speakers that are very old. Years ago, I noticed a burning smell out of one of them after playing them for a long time, (loudly). I removed the control pad, and smoke was coming out of the speaker cabinet.

After this the speaker never sounded good. The coils were not blown at this time but shortly afterwards, the woofer needed to be repaired. I am worried that the speaker is not getting the right frequency which may cause the expensive woofer to go again.

I have heard that you can download test tones and measure the output of the crossover with an oscilloscope. Is this true, if so how?

I have the use of a scope if needed.

Crossover failure won't kill the woofer anyway, it's the tweeter which could be damaged.

You could certainly test the performance of it with a scope though, a sinewave generator would be the best thing to use, but you can download a PC example that uses your soundcard.

Here's one example **broken link removed**
 
The fancy way to do it is with a microphone that you know the characteristics of (preferably frequency flat in the range of interest). Connect it to a scope, VU meter or other sensitive sound pressure measuring device. In practice, if you aren’t using a scope, you will probably have to use an amplifier to get a large enough signal to measure. That means you also have to know the amplifier’s response curve as well to achieve true accuracy. Apply a sine wave to the speaker in the middle of its range and crank up or down the frequency until the power level is down by ½ with the same input level. Then do the other speaker in the same way. Hopefully, the upper half power point of the woofer will be higher than the lower half power point of the tweeter. Set the crossover frequency half way between the two half power points. This should produce a really flat response over the whole range. Remember, this method tests the whole system including the speaker enclosures so make sure everything is put together and in its operating room and location.
 
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