Having been down this path

Posted by Russ57 (A) on July 5, 2014 at 21:27:51

In Reply to: Oh dear ... let me rephrase posted by Cleet Torres on July 5, 2014 at 19:26:04:

The problem isn't the signal your amp has to handle.....it is the signal your speaker (individual drivers) have to handle. Let that sink in real good and hard.

The simple solution you are after leaves you with a two outcomes. One is you have such a shallow slope that your amp and tweeter sees a lot of energy below this 500 hertz spot you pick (and that is a rather bad spot BTW). The other is, if your speaker crossover is such, that you leave your SET driving a complex impedance that changes with hertz (because they don't make a tweeter that can run 500-20,000 hertz without serious problems/crossover help). Neither is what you want.

Bottom line, you will walk away thinking bi-amping is flawed. That would be a shame. It is hard to get right but the rewards are there. You just have to think it through a lot more and get the right parts.

I'll suggest you look at what speakers (drivers) can do on the flat and level. We are talking about what range of hertz they can handle while keeping a ruler flat impedance. I doubt you will find much (in a single driver) that can handle more than about three octaves.

What you should be looking for, unless you want to tri-amp, is a mid-range driver that can run down to around 125-250 and up to around 1250-2000 hertz at 100db/watt (minimum) and mate that to a compression driver/horn that can run from there to 20,000 hertz (more or less). You would then have a passive crossover between mid-range and horn. Your SET would drive those. You'd be surprised what a couple/few class A watts can do.

You would use an electronic crossover after your preamp to send everything below 125-250 hertz to a solid state amp (say a 15" speaker on it) and everything above to the SET. If your musical tastes dictate it, a dedicated subwoofer will be needed.

You are better off using pro-audio drivers. Pick a crossover that allows you to adjust slope and cutover point. There are many things to take into account from room conditions to mechanical slopes of the drivers so you need adjustablity to begin with.

Don't think this will be easy. Chances are high you will decide amps were never your problem and that speakers were. There are some 12" and 10" vintage (alnico) speakers that will do and a few newer 8". DSS and 18sound made some good (cheap) horn lens.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Looking for a high pass filter kit - Cleet Torres 18:53:01 07/04/14 (46)

Harrison labs at parts express - hawkmoon 06:07:56 07/07/14 (6)

RE: Harrison labs at parts express - Tre' 08:05:22 07/07/14 (1)

Pure speculation on my part - 1973shovel 09:00:24 07/07/14 (0)

RE: Harrison labs at parts express - Cleet Torres 06:52:39 07/07/14 (3)

RE: Harrison labs at parts express - Tre' 08:09:12 07/07/14 (2)

More information - Tre' 08:31:06 07/07/14 (1)

RE: More information - Cleet Torres 09:36:06 07/07/14 (0)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - hifipaul 09:40:08 07/06/14 (0)

Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Cleet Torres 19:26:04 07/05/14 (10)

RE: Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Paul Joppa 21:54:08 07/05/14 (5)

RE: Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Cleet Torres 06:17:11 07/06/14 (4)

RE: Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Paul Joppa 15:11:40 07/06/14 (3)

RE: Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Paul Joppa 22:24:20 07/06/14 (2)

This one? (see link) - Tre' 07:51:50 07/07/14 (1)

RE: This one? (see link) - Paul Joppa 14:27:28 07/07/14 (0)

Having been down this path - Russ57 21:27:51 07/05/14 (1)

RE: Having been down this path - Cleet Torres 06:00:30 07/06/14 (0)

RE: Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Tre' 20:16:59 07/05/14 (1)

RE: Oh dear ... let me rephrase - Cleet Torres 06:03:53 07/06/14 (0)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - drlowmu 09:54:03 07/05/14 (7)

A lot of Hogwash! - gusser 10:54:24 07/07/14 (2)

Consistent and predictable - drlowmu 14:18:25 07/07/14 (1)

RE: Consistent and predictable - Ray Moth 06:30:36 07/13/14 (0)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - Cleet Torres 19:27:03 07/05/14 (3)

RE: not so sure ... - deathtube 667 03:53:31 07/07/14 (1)

RE: not so sure ... - Cleet Torres 06:47:22 07/07/14 (0)

LOL! [nt] - Ray Moth 17:42:03 07/06/14 (0)

Completely agree with Tre'... - Lew 08:44:33 07/05/14 (6)

RE: Completely agree with Tre'... - Tre' 09:16:09 07/05/14 (5)

RE: Completely agree with Tre'... - Cleet Torres 19:45:22 07/05/14 (0)

Isn't the net result the same? - Lew 18:29:21 07/05/14 (3)

RE: Isn't the net result the same? - Tre' 18:46:21 07/05/14 (2)

RE: Isn't the net result the same? - Lew 14:37:57 07/07/14 (1)

Very cool. (nt) - Tre' 15:59:20 07/07/14 (0)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - Eli Duttman 21:31:18 07/04/14 (2)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - Cleet Torres 07:25:45 07/05/14 (0)

The XM1 was the very first thing I ever soldered! - Chip647 07:04:09 07/05/14 (0)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - Tre' 20:31:47 07/04/14 (3)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - kugelwellen dude 03:41:18 07/05/14 (2)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - Skip Pack 12:37:31 07/05/14 (0)

RE: Looking for a high pass filter kit - Tre' 08:05:44 07/05/14 (0)

In the meantime - 1973shovel 20:28:26 07/04/14 (4)

RE: In the meantime - Cleet Torres 07:17:55 07/05/14 (1)

You're welcome. (nt) - 1973shovel 09:00:59 07/07/14 (0)

And if you don't like foot-notes - Chip647 06:51:15 07/05/14 (1)

Thank you! - 1973shovel 07:05:17 07/05/14 (0)

Follow Ups

Having been down this path - Russ57 21:27:51 07/05/14 (1)

RE: Having been down this path - Cleet Torres 06:00:30 07/06/14 (0)

Having been down this path

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