What crossover frequency should i use

They simply can't move enough air to have a chance of handling Bass properly. But even if you have larger, "full range" speakers -- speakers with specifications saying they are good down to 30 Hz, or even lower -- you are not going to get the same quality of Bass out of them as from a well selected Subwoofer.

Indeed, you can pretty much be guaranteed: Unless your main speakers EACH have to be plugged into wall power, there's pretty much no chance they can handle bass as well as a Subwoofer. And even for speakers that DO plug in, unless they have large Bass driver elements cones and dedicated amplification for those, they are not going to hold their own against a decent Subwoofer.

If you DO have speakers which plug in to wall power, and have driver elements specifically designed and amplified for Bass at VOLUME , then what you've got your hands on is a speaker with a Subwoofer built into the same cabinet! Some speaker makers also sell "satellite" Subwoofers, which are separate units intended to be attached to a single speaker, each -- and thus functioning AS IF a Subwoofer was built into each such single speaker. Such setups do exist, but they are not what most people end up getting.

So you'll have a Subwoofer built into each such speaker, plus another, stand alone Subwoofer for LFE. OK, if you've followed me so far, you should now be convinced you need at least one Subwoofer in your Home Theater setup maybe MORE than one -- budget and physical space allowing, of course. And this should start you thinking, "How do I get the Bass audio into it? From my post on Calibration Discs , you'll recall that multi-channel audio tracks frequently but not always include a Low Frequency Effects LFE channel.

The ". This is a special channel reserved for carrying LOUD Bass -- definitely the sort of stuff you'd want to send to your Subwoofer! The Subwoofer should ALSO be handling the lowest frequencies of this audio, as well, so that your regular speakers are not challenged with trying to reproduce it!

Crossover is simply the task of taking a single stream of audio and sending higher frequencies to one speaker and lower frequencies to another. Indeed, your regular speakers already include their own, internal Crossover electronics to split the audio among their various driver elements: Tweeter, Mid-range, and Woofer for example. There ARE other ways of implementing Crossover, but we'll focus on this typical way. So the job of the Crossover is to "filter" the audio intended for each speaker so that the Bass frequencies are actually sent to the Subwoofer, and the remaining, higher frequencies go to that speaker.

Keep in mind, this has to be done for EACH speaker channel. In essence the Subwoofer supports the low-end of every speaker along with handling the special, LFE Bass audio. You might wonder how this can possibly work, since the Subwoofer -- or even multiple Subwoofers -- are not sitting in the exact same position s as any of the speakers.

Indeed some of those speakers are likely on the opposite side of the room! This goes back to the concept of Bass frequencies "pressurizing" the entire volume of space in the listening room. The Bass comes "from everywhere" instead of from the location of any speaker. Fortunately, Crossover processors let you specify which Bass frequency range you want steered to the Subwoofer. Called the Crossover Frequency, this setting sets the dividing line: Higher frequencies go to the speaker and lower frequencies go the Subwoofer.

This rather unfortunate nomenclature has become pretty much industry-standard. Instead, you are simply specifying whether or not you want Crossover processing to happen. A Small speaker will be processed for Crossover. A Large speaker will not -- the full range of frequencies in its audio channel will be sent to that speaker.

And thus you would set these speakers all to Small -- regardless of their actual size! A typical Crossover Frequency would be 80 Hz. And you'll recall from that table linked above, this is a "safe" frequency for Bass steering, since the wavelengths of audio 80 Hz and lower are going to be long enough to trigger that "pressurizing" effect -- i.

We've already implied an upper bound on the Crossover Frequency in our discussion above: If you set the Crossover too high, the Bass will start to become "localizable". Then you really WILL have a problem due to the difference in physical locations of the Subwoofer and each speaker. A good Rule of Thumb is you don't want your Crossover to be higher than Hz. First, this keeps the Bass safely non-localizable.

But second -- and again refer to that table linked above -- this keeps the low frequency end of male dialog from being sent to the Subwoofer!

Your Subwoofer may be very good, but it probably won't be AS good as your regular speakers in rendering something so precise as human speech! In particular, they'd like to use a Subwoofer that's physically smaller but still capable of putting out enough output to work well in their listening room.

The folks who make Subwoofers will target these demands by marketing different models as Dynamic or Musical! The Dynamic Subwoofers are capable of much higher output for their size, but they aren't all that accurate.

Since they are smaller, they are also often less expensive. Such Subwoofers may be perfectly adequate for folks looking mostly to handle Bass effects in action movies -- explosions and such. However, folks who have invested good money in regular speakers, don't want the low end of those speaker channels compromised by inaccurate Bass reproduction! Check Latest Price on Amazon. It provides a flat summed amplitude response, which ensures zero phase difference. The individual output gain controls and mute switches give you more flexibility with setting up your system.

The XVV15 6-Way offers a continuously variable crossover frequency with separate inputs for your speakers and subwoofers. It comes with a multiplier switch and delivers non-fade low pass output and front and rear high pass outputs.

The bass boost feature will also help deliver seamless and air-tight bass from your subwoofer. The SoundStorm SX is a feature-packed crossover. It has a parallel input system and a selectable crossover slope. The bass boost function allows you to tune the center frequency to deliver the most complex bass with little to no distortion.

The three-year warranty offered by the brand is one of the most generous in the industry. Crossover frequencies may sound like it should be left to the experts but they are an often integral part of the speaker sound reproduction. For audiophiles who wish for that last improvement in sound and a better control with which their music is delivered, crossover frequencies should be highly considered. They help to filter out unwanted frequencies and in doing so promote optimal delivery of sound output from speakers.

While some speakers have some built-in crossovers, having an additional layer of control can also help fine tune your personal preferences and also unlock your speakers true potential. Cables Monitors Contact. What Is a Crossover Frequency? What Are Decibels? What Is a Good Crossover Frequency? Prev 8 Best Turntable Receivers of Next Harman Target Curve Explained. Leave a Reply Cancel reply.

Search for: Search. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. For example, some of the most common speaker sizes used in cars such as 3. They end up with bad sound and ugly distortion when driven with low-end bass and more power. An excellent solution to these and other problems is to completely remove that area of sound that causes poor sound quality. This lets you drive the speakers with more power yet get more clarity and volume from them — even cheap speakers!

Additionally, 2-way and 3-way speakers rely on crossovers to act as a divider between the speakers, resulting in excellent sound thanks to limiting the range of sound each produces. A crossover is an electrical or electronic component circuit made up of parts that react to certain frequencies and is designed to prevent unwanted ranges of sound from reaching speakers. Crossovers allow a desired range of sound to pass unaltered and effectively block ranges of sound past a limit called the cutoff frequency.

A crossover circuit can be used for a single speaker channel or combined with others to separate and direct sound to others, too. In car and home audio, the most common speaker crossovers are used in 2-way coaxial speakers, component speakers, and 2-way speaker cabinets. Active electronic crossovers use tiny signal amplifier chips called op-amps operational amplifiers to act similar to much bigger and far less efficient speaker crossovers.

Not only are they much smaller in size, but they can also be designed to allow you to choose between using no crossover, a high-pass, or a low-pass filter easily using a slide switch. The signal output of an electronic crossover has to be amplified, unlike speaker passive crossovers that you connect between an amp and speakers. These are circuit boards using electrical components to block unwanted sound frequencies from going to speakers not best for producing them.

This effectively separates splits the incoming sound signal into 2 or more and sends them to the speakers as needed. Electronic crossovers are typically used in subwoofer amps because of the cost and size savings — as well as better sound altogether. This type is implemented in the software code of home theater receivers, car stereo head units, or digital audio processors. They often use adjustable resistors dials to allow changing the cutoff frequency.

Top: 2-way component crossovers for car component speakers. Bottom: A home stereo speaker crossover like you might find in a bookshelf speaker set. Both use capacitors and inductors to filter and control the sound sent to a tweeter, midrange speaker, or woofer.

They work using passive components: capacitors and inductors. A speaker crossover is an electrical circuit that uses inductors and capacitors to filter a speaker signal and split it among 1 or more outputs.

The outputs depend upon the frequency response of the speakers used. A 2nd-order 2-way speaker crossover is shown here. Capacitors and inductors have some interesting properties depending upon the frequency of a signal applied to them:. This means the speaker will receive less and less of the speaker signal that we want to block the further the sound frequency is past the crossover point.

When you change that, it dramatically changes the crossover frequency! Speaker crossovers are designed in many ways but all have the same basic design structure — only the details change. Shown is an example of figuring out the reduction, in dB, of a crossover output. Much of the audio world works with powers of 10 logarithms, which you might remember from your algebra class.

This means the way our ears perceive volume works on a logarithmic scale. Diagram showing the slope, or cutoff steepness, for the most common types. Slopes, just like the crossover frequency, are categorized in terms of decibels dB per octave. The negative symbol is used to show they represent an attenuation, or reduction, of the signal. In the audio world, we commonly measure a range of sound frequencies between two points using an octave. An octave is a doubling or halving of a frequency number.

When we refer to a crossover having a cutoff of -6dB per octave, we mean it will continue to reduce the output by an additional 6dB for every doubling of the previous frequency. What are the most common and best crossover slopes? Crossovers are usually designed to be a good compromise between complexity, price, and sound quality.