Why do you need a speaker crossover - discuss

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

As it says in the title.

I am sure somebody will start saying I have an agenda or I am selling something so I will leave it as an open question without comment.

BTW I do not count a tweeter protection cap as a crossover, it is the rest I am talking about. So saying to protect the tweeter doesn't count as an answer.

[StanleyB]

I am sure somebody will start saying I have an agenda or I am selling something so I will leave it as an open question without comment.

Do you have to add negative vibes to just about anything you post? It's getting more than a bit boring now.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Do you have to add negative vibes to just about anything you post? It's getting more than a bit boring now.

Stan every single time I have joined in a thread or started a thread someone here has accused me of it, mostly the guy in goggles. So I am simply asking can we discuss something for once without it.

[aquapiranha]

Because drivers have a spectrum over which they perform well, without damage. This spectrum does not cover the entire scope of our hearing however, so we need to use two or more, each covering a portion of the range of sound, hence Woofer / Mid / Tweeter. The Crossover sends the appropriate band of the spectrum to whichever driver has been designed to handle that band, Thereby reducing the potential for damage and or distortion to /from any of the drivers by trying to get them to work outside their comfort zone. Of course adding a crossover adds it's own problems such as insertion loss and phase issues. Often people (including myself) prefer the sound of a single wide range driver despite their inherent reduction in output at the frequency extremes because the sound that is produced is not subject to the bashing it gets in a crossover. Of course there are active crossovers too and these go someway to reducing phase issues associated with passive crossovers but require the use of extra amplification.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Because drivers have a spectrum over which they perform well, without damage. This spectrum does not cover the entire scope of our hearing however, so we need to use two or more, each covering a portion of the range of sound, hence Woofer / Mid / Tweeter. The Crossover sends the appropriate band of the spectrum to whichever driver has been designed to handle that band, Thereby reducing the potential for damage and or distortion to /from any of the drivers by trying to get them to work outside their comfort zone. Of course adding a crossover adds it's own problems such as insertion loss and phase issues. Often people (including myself) prefer the sound of a single wide range driver despite their inherent reduction in output at the frequency extremes because the sound that is produced is not subject to the bashing it gets in a crossover. Of course there are active crossovers too and these go someway to reducing phase issues associated with passive crossovers but require the use of extra amplification.

So why can't you do the same thing by selecting appropriate or more suitable drivers, or mechanically altering the driver cone to tailor the response i.e. doping.

[aquapiranha]

Because I doubt that even with mechanical changes to the driver they would be able to cover the range required without causing other issues such as changing the sensitivity and therefore making a crossover required.. catch 22?

[StanleyB]

Stan every single time I have joined in a thread or started a thread someone here has accused me of it, mostly the guy in goggles.

So why don't you refrain from starting a thread? I hardly do after being accused by someone on AoS of ramming down the throat of the buying public the sales and marketing hype of manufacturers who are after selling more goods.
Sometimes ( most times) it is best to keep commercial sensitive information secret, and just give enough of an opinion in a quantity that most are satisfied with.

[aquapiranha]

I am guessing Richard has not come up with a magic doping material that enables the use of one driver to be used in place of maybe 2 or more Stan, so I doubt he is pushing some new form of technology. I could be wrong though but I am sure people have been trying to do just that for decades.

[flatpopely]

Because I doubt that even with mechanical changes to the driver they would be able to cover the range required without causing other issues such as changing the sensitivity and therefore making a crossover required.. catch 22?

I use Epos ES14s and the bass/mid has no crossover components in circuit but this is only possible because it is a bespoke driver designed for the specific application. It would be possible to choose a driver and then design a cabinet around it to acheive the same result, given the correct measurement equipment, but even the ES14 is compromised, despite having no crossover, in its lack of sensitvity. You don't get something for nothing.

[StanleyB]

When I was a repair engineer I experimented with a zobel network across each drive unit, instead of one zobel network at the amp output only. The difference and improvements were amazing. But whether I could have made money out of my project was very much in doubt.