Home made xovers

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

Ok, a newbie who's TRYING to have a bit of SQ in the car...

I'm about to invest in what little money I have in a sub and amp package... so I don't think I'll have enough for an active xover... so I'm trying to build my own xovers for the sub, and a 6"...

Does anyone know of a place where I can follow step by step? I don't care about the way it looks cause it'll probably hide inside baffles or under the carpeting...help!~

Click to read more...

 

[ftgu 10+ year member]

Easy.

Take a spool of teflon pipe tape(for plumbing) and throw the tape away, keep the spool it was on. next get some solid 18awg varnish insullated wire and coil it up on the spool. keep it as neat as possible, tape it up real good(w/electrical tape) but leave both ends of the wire hanging out a few inches. scrape the varnisk off the ends of the wire and connect it in-line from the amp to the sub( the closer it is to the sub the better).

If you are gonna do this with more than one sub, you must count how many times the wire is wound aroun the spool and wind both spools the same amount.

This is actually called a choke coil, and if done properly, it will cut off any sound above 80hz. although it will probably sacrifice about 10-20 watts of power.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[jlaine 10+ year member]

Originally posted by ftgu Easy.

Take a spool of teflon pipe tape(for plumbing) and throw the tape away, keep the spool it was on. next get some solid 18awg varnish insullated wire and coil it up on the spool. keep it as neat as possible, tape it up real good(w/electrical tape) but leave both ends of the wire hanging out a few inches. scrape the varnisk off the ends of the wire and connect it in-line from the amp to the sub( the closer it is to the sub the better).

If you are gonna do this with more than one sub, you must count how many times the wire is wound aroun the spool and wind both spools the same amount.

This is actually called a choke coil, and if done properly, it will cut off any sound above 80hz. although it will probably sacrifice about 10-20 watts of power.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

And did you just happen to guess at the 8mH that you need to get an 80hz first order slope, or did you measure it? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

We are talking several hundred feet of wire here, and I have not seen a spool of teflon pipe tape big enough to handle that...

 

Add onto it the roughly 1.5 ohms of resistance it'll add to the load...

 

[ftgu 10+ year member]

Actually, it depends on the size wire you use, with 18awg, you can get ALOT more windings than if you used 12awg, right? Yes it will add resistance, and this is why i would personally use an elecronic crossover. but if ya wanna save some money & learn a little something in the process, then what harm will it do? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

I did actully measure mine on an O-Scope. And Radio shack sells choke coils that cut off at 80hz, they use 18awg varnish wire and a spool about the same size as a spool of teflon tape, that is where i got the idea.(it works well if you have medocre subs and a GIANT AMP,LOL)//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif