Parts values determine how crossovers operate. But the quality of crossover parts affects things like dynamics, transparency, etc. Also 1st order crossovers demand very high quality, wide band drivers. Otherwise they will still have significant output beyond crossover points where they are probably breaking up badly. Higher order crossovers use more parts which, of course adds to cost, but they handle the areas where drivers, even costly ones, behave badly. That's why there are very few 1st order crossovers. At least go to 2nd order. And 4th order Linkwitz/Reilly crossovers are an even safer bet.
DIY Cheap crossover parts effect on frequency response
If anyone on these forums can help, I'd appreciate it.
I'm building my first set of speakers. I have done months of research on drivers, designing crossovers, cabinet considerations, so let's please leave that aside.
I thought I would be clever and buy much cheaper parts than what I was planning on buying with equivalent specs to confirm the theoretical changes I was seeing in VituxCAD. I made three measurements using REW and my UMIK-1:
1) No crossover
2) Proposed first order crossover
3) First order crossover with a 1.5Ohm resistor in the woofer circuit intended to bring down a 100Hz peak.
The resulting sweeps are telling me that the crossover I designed does not have an effect below 1k Hz.
(Trying to eliminate other variables) The room is poorly treated, the results are still consistent within the room. I am confident that my wiring/soldering skills have not derailed this circuit. Am I missing anything else?
Is it really just the cheapness of the parts? If I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on parts, I want to have some amount of confidence in their effectiveness. The cheaper attempt already cost $75, and getting entry-level audio components before buying what I wanted in the first place makes me uneasy.
Thanks
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Just becasue you have similar valued components and Even possibly Name brand components. Not all are created equal. Just some basics, Get ONLY capacitors and inductors that are made for speakers (not just musical type systems). Then If you look at just one brand of caps, Mundorf, you will find that they will have numerous caps of the exact same value, but for different intended purposes. Thankfully there is a page that gives one mans breakdown (his opinion) of what each capacitor of a certain value sounds like. Inductors.
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