How to design a high end crossover…

A: Yes it is, and no, it isn’t.

To "design" a crossover you need many more types of inductors and caps in a specific range to zero in on proving the math to be true by ear. It’s an art, after the science.

An example would be, a 1.2 mh inductor, air core and iron core in 18, 16, 14 and 12 gauge round wire, depending on frequency, and that equivalent in air core foil at their equal to determine which is correct. All have different sound.

Surprise, the more expensive ones sound better with better drivers… Iron core 15 gauge inductor, $10. Same value in foil 14 gauge, $38. It becomes obvious that material costs and quality sound reproduction are at odds with one and other from a product price point to consumer cost.

Same is true with caps, because they all have different attributes that has to be taken into consideration.

Then you have to understand that whe combining drivers, one XOver may be fine with a first order, but you may need a fourth to the next driver.

I thought it was all about math, but I was wrong. Even the wire interconnects color the crossover differently.
So, don’t go there as a critical endeavor unless you want to spend countless hours after the calculations to listening to music you know well over and over and over and over again, till it sounds natural. And a couple more overs after that.

I’d venture to say that someone that does this for a living on the high end easily has $20kmin stock parts that they know well to do this. Many good to better caps cost in excess of $300, and the quality of those is a total crap shoot when it comes to a final design.

You could easily wind up pairing a particular driver with a Bennic as a Mundorph EVO Silver Gold Oil. Look up the prices on those, it’s a revelation.

Designing a good passive crossover requires making good driver choices in the first place and it’s all about the ’the slide area’, as Ry Cooder might have called it. How much can you slide the crossover ranges around?

Or, the area of adjustment overlap. How linear and stable the drivers are in the crossover range, and how much overlap there is in the given frequency ranges. It’s an ugly task that takes time to master and it is all compromise, compromise, compromise.

A digital crossover is all compromise as well, with the major fault of being severely quality limited (brick walled) before you even begin. Best not go there.

So we’re left with active analog and passive crossovers, for those who seek quality in their gear.

As for costs, yes it gets quite expensive.

First, one can get to a linear space or place or minimal agreement spot, with inexpensive components....and then venture into the pile of expensive parts to test via. Then slowly zero in on the right spot, the best compromise. Zobels can be important, in my experience. lightly applied zobels, not over-damped zobels, can make a difference. I have a pair of those passive adjustable crossover boxes, which can really help in the initial stages. then add in expensive parts, then add in the premium parts and slowly dial it in. It can be months of time, if one does it right.

High end audio can be and generally is a ridiculously time consuming job with a requirement of extreme capacity in skills and whatnot.. with little room for reward at the end (re sales and the like). 

basically start with the vidsonix virtual crossover boxes, then move to the same but done as a 3/8ths mdf board with strategically located quality binding posts and ground runs, for a test system/board.  

then move to the premium parts on the test board, then move to the more final design and arrangement/layout of the premium parts, and then finalize it all in a single finished package, and then it's the final test run with the gear to be issued as product. Fixing any mistakes found, along the way.

Or something like that. It's a long process - to do it right.

Opps. 1.2mh inductor, foil, Goertz, $43.

@teoaudio

My dream job, if I were still working, would be in high end audio. I truly understand what those people must go through, day after day now.

Create a crossover, love it until you hear George Harrison’s voice on All Things Must Pass, and get totally torqued at his transition between his normal singing voice and his upper range.

Go to this company’s website and look at their capacitor summation; it's brilliant and back breaking at the same time. They easily have to have $30k in caps to rate all of these at multiple mf's.

http://humblehomemadehifi.com

I'm stuck on this hobby for myself, gonna build my own speakers after I get my soon to come Omen's, but like my mentor said to me 45 years ago: You can learn this or become a doctor, it will take the same amount of time.

SMH

What one ends up finding is that it can come down to the tweeters being in the top spot re importance in good design, and that there are only a small handful of ’best’ tweeters available, period. Like five or six of them. Maybe.

The rest are just compromises with little room for fitting correctly and are just flash in the pan one legged single hit wonders.

Where even the $300/ea tweeters still need to be torn down and re-assessed as to their design and build choices, where they are re-executed to a higher standard.

we see things akin to this in all other areas of endeavor and technology - the requirement to take the best in components and move each to a higher standard. Cars being a huge one..

Loudspeaker design is no exception and this should come as no surprise.