How to design a high end crossover…

First time in years I worked on a project and was surprised to look out the window and see the sun was rising.

In that case then I tip my hat to you, sir. Even in my prime at WSU I never was quite able to drink straight through to dawn.

You'll never wake up with a hangover, that way.

Allow me to over explain.


The process, then you can judge me to your hearts content, based on the facts and without all of the speculation. And of course, I never retract anything, so I’ll slowly try a nudge this post back to discussing what is pertinent to the original intention of it, designing XO’s.

I’m retired, so I can spend 40 hours a week doing this, and still have time for other hobbies and working on my house. And if I stay up all night working on something? Just working while I’m in the groove, as opposed to in a rut, which you can do when you’re the boss.

Start at 4:30 in the afternoon, Check previous records and notes; work on the breadboard to build the XO prototype, hook up, run test sweeps, make changes and repeat till it looks better than the last best version from previous sessions, based on thinking about how to improve the design from the last session.

Make drink and move to listening chair, start playlist of selected speaker instrument tones and demo songs and listen for about 62 minutes, taking notes on good points and bad. Back to computer, log notes.

Repeat till 7am, clock out.
So yeah, I thought it was funny and posted it as half joke, half truth. Four listening sessions over that period of time? My God, could he walk back to the house?!
If you want to find fault, send me a note through Audiogon and I’ll be happy to provide you with all of my faults so you can really tee off on me with maximum effect in the future.

But if you can’t relax with a drink and listen to your stereo because you are alcohol intolerant, your religion forbids you from drinking you’re in AA, or your psych meds won’t let you have a drink, stop telling the world that on my post.

We should really be talking about trying to make the best XO that one can here, costs be damned, and time is not a major concern. Designing an XO like this, as Danny at GR R says:

People think I just sit down and punch in a few numbers to a computer program and assemble the parts, etc. That is nothing like what happens…

It >is< nothing like that; Danny knows what numbers to punch in after testing the drivers individually because the published specs are merely a guideline for selection, and are not dead on to the product that shows up at your doorstep. But he is also wise not to divulge too much because what goes on in his head is Intelectual Property, and important for his livelihood. 

I have one of his XO’s, and no matter how hard you try and get the specs out of me, that will never happen, because I was an artist, then a Senior Designer in ID, and I understand how important trade secrets, copyrights and patents are to making a living/profit. Someone uses one of my photographs or part of something I designed for profit? I’m going to sue them.

That is why I am amazed the Humble Home Made HiFi publishes photos of their XO builds, because of the IP they are disclosing.

Look at these photos, if you know what you are looking at, it’s all there. Of course you may have to put off that trip to Hawaii, for 4, to buy one, let alone with the accompanying speaker it’s in, but you can read the caps and inductors makers name, and what model from their selected line. Of course these are specific to a particular set of speakers they are designing for, and they don’t show those, but still…

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/services/assembly_116.jpg

@oldhvymech

You really do need a a soundproof supply room to break a lot of this stuff in, speakers to caps.

I'm speculating early on in my research on cables so far, without a complete understanding, so FWIW: I do think there is something to your ears becoming accustomed to a new component, so breaking them in; but I also think there is something to breaking something in like a speaker cable, from a physics stand point, and that could be something as simple as the cabling's jacket shrinking from mild heat and off gassing, changing the relationship of the conductors distance from one and other. 

I do not think, at this point, that the physical nature of the conductor changes after manufacturing changes, unless something like cryotreatment is applied, or the wires are annealed after the drawing of them, tempered or surface smoothing, or a combination of those, to make a superior cable. 
Caps? Yep, physical and chemical relationships are being ingrained in the parts memory, bringing out it's full character.

Inductors? See wire finishing.

I'm self taught, so don't have anything to relate from others who I've learned from except what I learn from my testing, and other people affecting those judgments by my studying their designs.

A cheep tip. Not on XO's but…

Want better results from standard SxS speaker cable? Mesure out length you need, adding a couple of feet. Place one end in a vice, one the other attach to an VS electric drill. Slowly twist the wire under tension till you get 6 twists for every foot, then anchor the drill with a weight. Set the twist with a high powered hair dryer, careful not to melt the wire, let cool. 
If it didn't keep the twists, it wasn’t heated enough, or you have a high temp jacket, and so have to add twists in the beginning knowing that the cable will relax.


Now you have much better speaker wire.

Oh, one other thing, all of the Humble Home Made HiFi's that are round wire coils use Litz wire, out of all of their photos, only a couple are not.