How to Choose Crossover Components on a Budget

Рет қаралды 39,609

Күн бұрын

If you want the best sound but you're on a budget, you'll need to choose the right quality components and spend your money wisely.
I'm passionate about creating an affordable sound experience and truly believe that choosing quality components is super important when you're trying to get the most bang for your buck.
This video talks about where to spend your money when you're choosing crossover components, and which aspects matter in your crossover design.
Enjoy the video and have fun with all your audio projects!
-Kent Larsen
With numerous years of serving high-end audio clients under my belt, I am excited to offer a speaker repair and upgrade service that's sure to meet your needs. I apply the intricate process demonstrated in my videos, ensuring that your speakers are handled by an expert. For advice or packaging inquiries, please don't hesitate to contact me. If you're within the Las Vegas area, drop-off or potential pick-up can be arranged.
A dedicated website with more detailed information is currently in the works - keep an eye on audiovega.com/. I specialize in refoaming a diverse range of brands, having a wealth of experience with JBL, Cerwin Vega, Snell, Dali, Bang and Olufsen, and Scan-speak drivers. My proficiency particularly lies in refurbishing and upgrading crossovers, as well as carrying out driver replacements and upgrades that often necessitate precise measurements and calculations. Trust that your audio equipment is in capable hands.

Пікірлер: 77

@totbenru 2 жыл бұрын

Finally, an audiophile who has a firm grasp of the fundamentals of Electronics. You are the 1st person on KZfaq I've watched who explained the function of each Crossover component (including its losses & parasitics) perfectly. So many on this platform claim to have decades of experience in this field yet says a Microfarad is a 1/1000 of a farad.

@cletusberkeley9441 Жыл бұрын

Very detailed yet kept simple. Good job indeed.

$@luminousfractal420$

@luminousfractal420 5 ай бұрын

I was sold on that genuine smile talking about the musical quality you might get

@sebastianbachert9528 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I'm encurraged in changing the caps on my vintage speakers!

@filipeoliveira3368 10 ай бұрын

So nice to see your video explanation! Thank you for that. 👍

@f18a 10 ай бұрын

Absolutely correct. Matches my experience exactly.

@Driving_Somewhere 8 ай бұрын

Greetings from Singapore. Really like the insight you provide in terms of where quality really matters most. The textbooks just don't tell us this!!!!

@AudioTalk 8 ай бұрын

Thank you! I would love to see Singapore, its at the top of the travel list for my wife and I.

@timmotel5804 5 ай бұрын

1/26/2024: Good Day. Much to think about here, and excellent education. Thank You

@t0ad 4 ай бұрын

This video is just what I needed. Great vid. Liked, thanks.

@pistollero 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent video :) thank for sharing your knowledge🙂

@dynaudiofocus 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for the upload, im building some big horns and trying to get my head around the crossover, your videos are excellent for explanation.

@AudioTalk 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!!

@tallpaull9367 Жыл бұрын

Nice one man, this is a great video for people to understand the basics!

@alexandrefernandes6286 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, learned a lot with your video. Thank you so so much!!

@davidzoller9617 10 ай бұрын

That was very helpful, thanks.

@williampitzalis3127 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your time.

@pascalphase2556 2 жыл бұрын

Very very informative...thank you from France !

@Clint_the_Audio-Photo_Guy 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting, thanks. Kind of what I suspected already. Parts, in series and higher freq's are the most important.

@kelvinlee7423 2 жыл бұрын

Great video, I am looking forward to outer foil capacitor orientation in crossover either bypass or coupling position with respect to speaker +/- terminal or with respect to amplifier output +/- terminal. Hope to see in near future video.👍

@TechStuff365 3 күн бұрын

Very useful thankyou.

@doctorbo5810 3 жыл бұрын

Great Video, Thank you!

@denziljones7881 2 ай бұрын

Best advise ever, thx. A month ago I started building my own xovers for my Denon 1910, and wish I had watched your video earlier. Nonetheless, I'm pairing my 7.1 AVR with big horn tweeters and vintage pioneer bookshelves. My sound is more crispier after upgrading to crossovers. I found that not connecting the tweeter air inductors to ground but directly to + gives a better response than if the coils had been grounded. I'm using ceramic resistors, bypass caps and diy coils. Advise on: 1. HP air coil connected directly to tweeter + instead of grounded because my woofer coils is already grounded. 2. resistor connected to LP immediately before AMP -

@Antoon55 4 жыл бұрын

Great stuff! Thanks

@ericharrelson2045 3 жыл бұрын

Informative, thank you.

@boxinggold 3 жыл бұрын

Great video, thanks

@tweakerman 10 ай бұрын

Great video👍

@Pascal-eg4tf 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation

@Salmonaxe223 3 жыл бұрын

I have some JBL HP520 towers that were pretty high end when they came out. I just looked at the crossover, and a lot of the capacitors look to be Bennic radial dipped polyester film capacitors. And anywhere there is an electrolytic capacitor, there is a tiny green chicklet tone capacitor in parallel. Half the inductors are air core and half are iron core, but on a steel spool, instead of plates. All resistors are sand cast. Pretty much every component that had a label was a Bennic component. All the electrolytics weren’t bulged or physically leaking. It seems like pretty nice stuff and they didn’t skimp a lot on the design. Would there be any appreciable benefit to upgrading the components?

@linandy1 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, that was informativ

@user-pq3bz2jh8l 8 ай бұрын

Yes u r very good. Yes series elements are much more important than the parallel elements. Sometimes even add resistance to parallel elements but never add R to series elements very good

@davidfleming8208 3 жыл бұрын

Kurt can you comment on the JBL 4412 crossover capacitor replacements?

@LScott97 4 жыл бұрын

Great video!!!

@AudioTalk 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

@vicg5323 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@palmito22 Жыл бұрын

Good video!

@tigerbalm666 3 жыл бұрын

Do you know how to upgrade a Pioneer CS-53 speakers? THx!

@markmdamp9438 3 жыл бұрын

what program do you use to calculate your xovers??

@Kairo1985 4 жыл бұрын

Really good and detailed explanation on considerations for crossover design. There's not much information I could find on line that puts it as well as you did. Thank you. I'm currently working on some Elac speaker crossovers where my mids are recessed and not as detailed, and the highs are too loud and a bit fatiguing. Contemplating what the best approach might be.

@AudioTalk 4 жыл бұрын

More dampening with the lpad and a better capacitor in the high pas maybe will do it. Its often hard with the factory made speakers because the speaker drivers doesnt come with thiele-small data, so then they will have to be measured with ex dats v2 and a umik-1 to get data to calculate with.

@sphinx7676 Жыл бұрын

is ok to replace 10W 2RJ resistor with 10W 2.2ohm resistor in speaker crossover, will it be any big difference

@thelibrary8604 2 жыл бұрын

Can pls give value for C1, L1 and R1......

@WT-ic8mv 5 ай бұрын

I wander if you can help me,I been trying to recap my speakers crossover ,I can seen to find anywhere this capacitor made by spirit 106J 100v and also spirit 275J 250V any ideas ? I’ll appreciate and new in this ,thanks

@jasbirsingh4583 Жыл бұрын

Hello sir How to make 4ohm 12db 3way crossover ?

@MasterAudio56 3 жыл бұрын

v.v thanks to share u r great experience , love it u r channel so-much.

@AudioTalk 3 жыл бұрын

So nice of you

@nemoaspieman369 3 жыл бұрын

I am planning to build a Passive 4th order High Pass filter for my tweeter, which is able to play down to 1kHz, and thus I plan to have the signal to be attenuated to 60dB by 1kHz and be at 1.4kHz at 83dB, basically filtering at just below 1.6kHz. Is there a reason why a 3rd order is better suited as a High Pass filter for a tweeter like mine? I have read that when it comes to the phase difference between 4th and 3rd order filters 4th orders can cause resonance, is this correct? I am not 100% sure if I am on the right track and would like to save some money if a 4th order will cause the tweeter to sound weird, but I really like the steep slope, so hoping it is acceptable. Furthermore, I plan to use the following components; Mundorf capacitors Mundorf Air Cored Copper Foil Coils CFC16 (inductors) Mundorf M-Resist Audiophile Resistors Which will cost me a total of $250 for two High Pass Filters. I am happy with the budget but prefer to not waste money making a mistake, especially if it is a blatant one. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

@mariancol2428 2 ай бұрын

The coils introduce phase delays and the capacitors out of phase, you cannot get rid of distortions with passive filters!! Because of this, it is best to use a very good constructive broadband speaker! Or as few components as possible in the crossover, of order 1 with loudspeakers already built at the same SPL and made for certain frequencies!

@weeverob Жыл бұрын

very fine video. tx. do you know of any books out there that would be close to Crossovers For Idiots? I know nothing off this subject but would like to learn how to design speakers from scratch. Tx again.

@AudioTalk Жыл бұрын

My suggestion would be to get Bassbox Pro and Xover pro which are softwares. If you go to Help in the menu and select On-screen manual, it will show a really easy to understand intro to speaker building in each of the 2 softwares it consist of. The reason why I think this is better than any book is that the software can estimate good compromises, and is full of little design hints/warnings that clues you in to the dynamics. So through the why is it doing that and what the manual said, I believe you have something that moves forward quicker.

@weeverob Жыл бұрын

@@AudioTalk thanks for your help, Kent!

@michaelstraughn3465 Жыл бұрын

He's got 22,000 views of this video, that's good, but who among them understand the math? Back in my day, I found the Parameters to use, in creating a tuned speaker. Kids became more interested in the SPL, as apposed to Quality. I went to a contest, when I was a professional Installer, and found that the Competitors knowledge of the Thiele and Small Parameters were non existent. This was 1994. Now there are KZfaq video's and all that. This guy Doesn't want to explain the parameters, for fear of loosing interest... Not me, I dig this guy..

@kelvinlee7423 2 жыл бұрын

How does the outer foil capacitor lead connection impact the crossover ? What is the proper outer foil lead orientation for C1, C2, C3, C4, Ce ?

@adwoapokua Жыл бұрын

Please I just came across this video good work but if you can teach how to calculate the components that's

@AudioTalk Жыл бұрын

Use an online calculator or much better crossover software for that. Even if you are a electronic engineer it makes no sense to calculate manually. You change one thing and it moves so many other parts of the calculation. I recommend X-over pro from HarrisTech because it guides you. Lots of people like Xsim which is free, and its good if you have some more fundamentals and it requires ZMA and FRD files on your speaker drivers, and here X-over pro can work with thiele-small parameters if you dont have ZMA and FRD files

@thelibrary8604 2 жыл бұрын

Calculat the db and ohm and give 8,8,8 ohm

@ubacow7109 Жыл бұрын

Is there any benefit to fancy higher end crossover components vs cheaper ones?

@AudioTalk Жыл бұрын

Absolutely, if the speaker drivers support it and they often do. Particularly vintage high-end this is often a good upgrade, back in the day electrolytic caps where often used, and they really have no place in high-end, too much hysteresis.

@ubacow7109 Жыл бұрын

@@AudioTalk don't all the crossover components technically do the same job though so long as the values are what the design calls for?

@AudioTalk Жыл бұрын

@@ubacow7109 They technically do the same, but there are different qualities, just like the speaker drivers, just fewer aspects of differences. So an electrolytic cap can do the job, the result is just harshness and lack of clarity, particularly its clear in the high-pass to hear.

@michaelstraughn3465 Жыл бұрын

Air Inductors are the best, Mylar Capacitors are the best as for audio use in Notch filters, and Crossovers.

@crossoverchef 9 ай бұрын

Nedlab capacitors

@michaelstraughn3465 Жыл бұрын

a capacitor resists, or filters Low Frequencies... The Inductor does the opposite, it will resist High frequencies..

@danbalkey2580 2 жыл бұрын

Need someone to make a pair of crossover for a pair of hivi 3.1a speakers I do have all infor anyone need help

@conchobar 2 жыл бұрын

Humble hifi assembles crossovers as a business model. I'm sure you can also get companies like Madisound or Meniscus to assemble a crossover for you too, as long as you purchase the components from them.

@danbalkey2580 Жыл бұрын

Iam lost to me didn’t tell me what name brand are better then other.

@AudioTalk Жыл бұрын

The main thing is between the fundamental types of components for a solid result. There is difference between brands and the value they give. I found Solen and Jantzen to provide most bang for the buck. And for capacitors which have the greatest impact, see this article www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html I think its a masterpiece

@michaelstraughn3465 Жыл бұрын

1st order bandpass is 6db/Octave, 2nd order bandpass is 12db/Octave..

@mahmoodh7767 Жыл бұрын

👌👌👌👌👌👌👍👍👍👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏

$@luminousfractal420$

@luminousfractal420 5 ай бұрын

I was looking to uograde a cheaper crossover board with slightly better components. I picked up a couple of wima caps 3.3-3.4uf 50v, now im worried..as theyre tiny compared to the massive cap on the board...does size matter? 😂 Its a 100w rms amp going into a 100w woofer and 15w tweeter 8ohms +l-pad from said cheap crossover board (2nd order woofer, third order tweeter,).

@johnsweda2999 4 жыл бұрын

What about noise from the resistors, and inductance free resistor sandcast or anything else will make no difference not sure why you showing three different types there's no difference between the three if they're non- inductance they are all the same as long as noise floor is the same. What about tantalum resistors why are they not preferred

@alimahdavi2276 3 жыл бұрын

Tantalum is one of the conflict metals. As long as you buy tantalum, you're fueling the tribal conflicts between the african regimes that own the mines. I guess that's mostly why Tantalum has lost its fame among the enthusiasts.

@rhalfik 2 жыл бұрын

There is a study on iron core inductors and other papers on the topic of speaker crossovers on DIYRM. Some of them contradict what you say. I think if an inductor has a high value, then sticking with expensive air core makes no sense. Laminated core inductors have neglegible hysteresis.

@AudioTalk 2 жыл бұрын

Maybe I am not being clear enough in the video, but that is exactly what I am advocating (starting around 10:30). There the shift due to resistance is explained. Even better than the laminated steel is toroidal cores.

@liquidcode1704 Жыл бұрын

Well shit, I wish I'd watched this damn video before I ordered the frickin expensive 100uF capacitor and 2.5mH inductor for my lowpass =P whoops Nah, it's ok, we're talking maybe $50 bucks, which isn't nothing, but for the quality I got, It's gonna last. The only thing is I wish I coulda got some of the 1% loss 20w resistors instead of the 10w 2% ones. But honestly idk how much that will matter. Building Swope 3-way tower btw

@danielh12345 Жыл бұрын

I have a question if you don't mind, I'm trying to wrap my head around component values. I'm not knowledgeable about the electrical field to be honest but trying to learn bit by bit. What is the difference between the 10W and 20W components? Are the 20W components just able to handle more power if the Ohm rating is the same? Or does it have a different effect? For example a 10 ohm 10w component will have a resistance of 10ohm until 10W and anything above 10W will not be resisted? Maybe it helps if you explain why you wouldve wanted a 20W component instead of the 10W one? Hope my questions aren't too stupid, I'm a noob haha