Why do you need a speaker crossover - discuss

[tannoy man]

How do I use my TRULY WONDERFUL (never heard better speakers in my life) Tannoy Monitor Golds, without any crossovers? Discuss....

Marco.

P.S Richard, you have email!

Marco use a high pass filter on the HF Compression Driver and no filter on the
Bass/Mid it sounds great

[Marco]

Careful there, the Hyperbole Police have spies everywhere...

Hehehe.... Indeed! The point I'm making though is that it's all about achieving the best balance of compromises.

No audio equipment is perfect.

Therefore, regardless if crossovers make things worse (an undisputable fact), I'd lose far more than I'd gain by using intrinsically worse sounding speakers than the Tannoys, just to lose the crossovers in a totally different design!

Regarding, making further modifications... Thanks for the tips, guys, but I can't really be arsed. Why attempt to 'fix' what ain't broken?

The crossovers in my Tannoys are very simple, though, and of the highest quality, so I reckon that I have achieved the best balance of compromises, and they stun me every time I listen to how wonderfully they reproduce music - job done!

Marco.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I thought so. did you post something else recently about BBC style speakers being a bit old hat and not up to the job? I don't think I have ever heard any 'BBC' style speakers if you are referring to the small stand mount type though I have heard Marco's old Spendor S100's, do they fall into that catergory?

I don't know but I presume they don't. Companies like Harbeth and Spendor now a days only pay lip service to BBC design principles for marketing purposes IMO.

It is more a problem now with bigger companies and to do with cost savings, as a complex crossover is a lot cheaper than a good drive unit or solid cabinet.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Marco use a high pass filter on the HF Compression Driver and no filter on the
Bass/Mid it sounds great

There you go a man who knows. All the gumf was not needed in the first place

[Tim]

Companies like Harbeth and Spendor now a days only pay lip service to BBC design principles for marketing purposes IMO.

I'm so glad you included that.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I'm so glad you included that.

I would have thought it was obvious as Marco says. I include it to deflect some of the ignorant shit thrown at me.

[lurcher]

There is only one thing better than the best component you can buy, and that is no component at all.

Assuming that the absense of that component does not cause more damage than the best component that could be used.

Deciding to improve your sound by not using any speaker cables will not lead to a better sound if the output of the amplifier has to be distant from the loudspeaker.

[nat8808]

IMO an active crossover is even worse that a passive one, not only do you get the phase problems associated with all filters, but you get the noise of an active circuit (transistor thermal noise) but also you get all the associated power supply problems. It is just more gumf sitting in the signal (music) path to mess it up.

I hope these phase problems and noise problems have been bourne out through listening and are not just objectivist talk !!

If YES --> carry on to next post

NO --> are you sure these problems are real problems to the listener?

[nat8808]

Musically it can only be done by ear.

Can I express a small niggle of mine that often pops up on forums? Not aimed at you really Richard, a general point.

What if you're not listening to music and you want the speakers to portray a sound recording as realistically as possible, a sound recording of non-musical sounds?

I want speakers that do that and I assume that any musical event will also be portrayed in an equally realistic way without a human emotional brain interfering to make it more musical. and therefore imposing a 'human (western) cultural filter'.

Am I then forced to go for studio style speakers where no claims are made about musicality or is it all hifi talk and they're the same?

(out of interest, does any maufacturer claim to do this at all? Harbeth claim to use speech as a listening test but surely that's bandwidth limited realism?)

[Ali Tait]

How do I use my TRULY WONDERFUL (never heard better speakers in my life) Tannoy Monitor Golds, without any crossovers? Discuss....

Marco.

P.S Richard, you have email!

You could do the next best thing Marco- get a good SET amp to drive the tweeters and go active with a Behringer DCX2496. I'm pretty sure it would sound better than your passive set up.