Why do you need a speaker crossover - discuss

[BTH K10A]

I should also like to correct, or at least modify the view that the BBC tried to solve all the problems in the crossover. I'm not sure that's entirely true and although I haven't studied their research papers in depth, I'd respectfully suggest that the engineers of Harwood's time and before, really DID know exactly what they were doing, cared passionately about the end result but were hampered by the technology available at the time.

I would agree that the engineers at the BBC certainly knew what they were doing. It is important to remember that they were designing (voicing) speakers for their own specific applications such as outside broadcast monitoring etc. I doubt that they were ever intended to be marketed as domestic speakers but the licensed companies manufacturing them saw an opportinity.

I have owned some of the BBC derived speakers such as BC1'a, Studio 1a's and LS3/5's. The Studio 1a's gave the best all round performance but the little LS3/5's albeit bass limited, had an amazing soundstage if partnered with a good amp with lots of power. The Celestion SL6 range responds in a similar way. Anyway that's enough about BBC speakers. Who was it who introduced them into the discussion.

I currently use large JBLs which have more inductors than you can shake a stick at yet sound surprisingly good.



If you really want to go to town with crossovers, this is one found in one of the best speakers I've ever heard.



In reality good crossovers are expensive. They are not the ideal solution but better that individual drivers are correctly integrated with complementary roll off slopes and all working within their ideal parameters than something left to trial and error.