How do you high pass your main speakers?

Rereading this thread, I stil think that there is no need to do anything.  You won't improve your sound because your current speakers don't go low enough to worry about.  My guess is things sound really good right now.

But I want to caution about the advice in this thread  to hit your signal train with a sledgehammer of electronics.  I've posted before that I consider the signal path sacred and it should be touched as little as possible.  Running your signal through an endless rack of electronics is a sure way to end us with that common "consumer" sound.

If you do decide to so something, I highly recommend the path @erik_squires has suggested which messes with the signal the least and give your speakers the best chance of continuing to do a great job above 80Hz.

Jerry

@carlsbad2 

Thanks Jerry.

I have come to that exact conclusion.

It's like cooking. Sometimes it is best to resist adding that extra teaspoon of salt.

Appreciate the common sense advice.

Tony

Hi everybody! I'm also contemplating high passing (some of) my speakers. Regarding the capacitor advice of @erik_squires: would it be possible to add it directly before the speakers? Of course, a different value would be needed. Sorry if this is stupid, I have no background in electronics. My reasoning is like this:

1. If I'm going for the preamp-->capacitor-->power amp route with my integrated amplifier (with pre-outs and power-ins) then I would also need another interconnect cable as I cannot simply insert the capacitors in the RCA or XLR connectors in the back of my amp. The cable would need to be butchered. Plenty of extra contacts and soldering in the signal path as well as the particular voicing and the extra expense of the additional interconnect turns this into something less simple and elegant than I'd like. Not to mention that I'd have to use both the unbalanced and the balanced pre outs in this case at the same time (pre to power and also pre to subwoofer) and I don't know if this is totally without sonic consequences.

2. For connecting the speaker cables I prefer the bare wire option anyway, after trying WBT bananas and spades that is. I'd simply have to solder one speaker wire to one leg of the capacitor, while the other leg would go to the biding post (maybe at the amp end of the speaker cable in order to avoid too much vibration induced by the speaker?)

3. Or maybe this could be done inside the speaker, between the crossover and the woofer itself?

Of course, in this case only the woofer would benefit from having to deal with less deep bass while the power amplifier would not be spared of the task...

Regarding the capacitor advice of @erik_squires: would it be possible to add it directly before the speakers? Of course, a different value would be needed. Sorry if this is stupid, I have no background in electronics. My reasoning is like this:

@donquichotte - Technically yes, but the cap size would be huge. It’s also not a very good or efficient idea. YG Acoustics has actually made a speaker like this, though really really not sure why, except maybe they were worried about over driving the woofer.

By putting a high pass filter before your amplifier you minimize the voltage swing the amp has to make, but putting it after means the amp still has to produce the same range of (+) and (-) voltages.

In other words, putting a high pass filter before your amp gives you more headroom, allowing it to play louder before reaching the limits

3. Or maybe this could be done inside the speaker, between the crossover and the woofer itself?

Well, yes, that’s called a crossover. 😂

I'm guessing your speakers were designed to handle their low frequency limits.

If the amplifier driving those speakers has adequate output to drive them, the methode of the high pass filtering may interfere with their designed presentation.

Its something you might try. High pass filtering is far from a panacea simply because subwoofers are being used.

The region where your speakers are rolling off is like a landing pad to lay your SVS subwoofers crossover onto. I'm assuming your feeding your sub-bass speakers the equalized line level signal from the SVS.