2-Way Crossover Vs. 3-Way Crossover

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

whats the difference? advantages/disadvantages? sorry for the newb questions, but these are the one thing i have no knowledge on. i have an amp for my subs and one for my mids, so what would i need? the reason i'm asking all this is because on the super low bass notes, my mids get a little bit of distortion, and my friend said a crossover would help that.

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Depends...

usually a 3way takes more work to get it sounding right, but a quality design shouldn't matter...a 3way could also be more inefficient, but unless you're dealing with extremely low power that doesn't matter.

my mids get a little bit of distortion, and my friend said a crossover would help that

The amp's onboard Xovers should help with that...you shouldn't let your mids run down in the area where your subs could take over.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

i am using the amps xovers, and still got distortion. how do i not let my mids run down in the area my your subs could take over?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Bass blockers could work...just a simple cap/inductor circuit that works as a cheap HP filter.

Crotchfield's (//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif) sells them, I believe.

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

What is the slope of the crossovers..? higher the slope the more you kill any frequencies below your set point. set your highpass right at the same frequency as your low pass.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

what frequency would you recommend they be set at in your opinion?

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

either use a capacitor and if that doesnt cure your problems, maybe go to an EQ before you get complicated with a crossover

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

well will a crossover help?

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

yes crossovers in your amps will help tons over a cap. Get out your manual and find out what the crossover slopes are in the amps.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

my mind is so scattered i have no idea what any of this means //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

Time to start reading and learning man //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Everyone starts out a noob.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

is that the slope you were talking about? this is from the manual for my amp. does this mean i should set it at 50 Hz.? also what should my subsonic filter be set at, i have a ported box tuned to ~34 Hz? thanks so much for your help.

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

yes crossovers in your amps will help tons over a cap. Get out your manual and find out what the crossover slopes are in the amps.

yes, but it comes to a certain point where if you are running multiple speakers off one amplifier, that you cannot satisfy each one of them, if they are different. say if you are running a tweeter and a coaxial, the coaxial will be fine with the crossover set optimized for them, but a tweeter off that same amp and crossover setting will probably blow if certain frequencies are not blocked from it.