An acoustic crossover is an element that allows you to adjust the sound of speakers, separate and equalize frequency ranges. You can buy it, ask someone to install it, but most often there is no desire to spend money on it. It’s better to install a new speaker system completely, to create a real sound stage. It's not difficult, but it's expensive.
What is a crossover?
Crossover for acoustics
Many people want to save a lot of money and do a comprehensive tuning of their car. This dream is tempting, no doubt. If an opportunity arises, we must act. However, this dream rarely comes true. There are other needs. No time for music. Until the required amount for all additions and transformations accumulates, the car can stop driving. Urgent problems must be resolved in a timely manner. If it's winter outside, it's time to change your tires. If the speakers sound different, it's time to adjust it. Hoping to win a million, a billion, a trillion is commendable. The main thing is to correspond to reality.
Do-it-yourself acoustic crossover – is it real or not? Many people claim that assembling it yourself is easier than it seems. And it’s much cheaper, plus it’s an interesting process. You just need to want to do it, set a goal for yourself, delve into the essence of the issue, figure it out, and objectively assess your capabilities. At first glance, it is difficult to assemble a crossover for acoustics with your own hands. But this is only at first glance.
Another obstacle is that you don’t want to spoil the appearance of the interior. What should you do: take the risk of doing such work yourself or give up your dream? Of course, this is a difficult choice, a dilemma. On the other hand, no matter what, the appearance of the interior will always be corrected at the service station.
Other Features
Today, the most common tweeter option is the electrodynamic system. Structurally, it consists of a housing, a magnet, a coil with a winding, a diaphragm with a membrane, and power wires with terminals. When a signal is applied, current flows in the coil and an electromagnetic field is formed. It interacts with the magnet, mechanical vibrations occur, which are transmitted to the diaphragm. The latter creates acoustic waves, and sound is heard. To increase the efficiency of sound reproduction, the membrane has a specific dome shape.
Car tweeters typically use silk membranes. To obtain additional rigidity, the membrane is impregnated with a special compound. Silk is characterized by its ability to more effectively cope with high loads, temperature changes and dampness.
In the most expensive tweeters, the membrane is made of thin aluminum or titanium. This can only be found on very prestigious speaker systems. They are found quite rarely in a typical car audio system. The cheapest option is a paper membrane.
In addition to the fact that the sound is worse than in the two previous cases, such equipment has an extremely short service life. And this is not surprising, since paper cannot ensure high-quality tweeter performance in conditions of low temperature, high humidity and high load. When the car increases engine speed, an unusual sound may be felt.
Don't forget that you can also set up the tweeter using the radio. Even the cheapest models have the ability to adjust the high frequencies. In particular, mid-price models have a built-in equalizer, which greatly simplifies the task.
When exactly is this element needed?
Good acoustics may not need a crossover at all. Why? Because the frequency range of the sound entering the speakers is harmonious. The speakers themselves and other elements contribute to this. However, even a good acoustic system, which is expensive, sometimes does not satisfy with its sound. An ear for music is not a vice. Is it worth suffering because of an innate biological feature? The manufacturer is not obliged to focus on the category of citizens with an ear for music and sensitive receptors.
Speakers without a crossover are not functional in some cases. What is it: creaks, extraneous noise, voice distortion? A good trainer for hearing and strengthening the nervous system? Taking care of yourself is important. Manufacturers sometimes offer people to do this themselves.
Music is many sounds that have different frequency ranges. Some people hear, some they don’t. He likes some, he doesn't like others. Muting certain frequencies, on the contrary, emphasizing them, making them loud or completely unnoticeable - the crossover was invented for this purpose. Acoustics will delight and truly serve people if this element is added.
Size
They all differ in size, which is very important in terms of acoustic design. You should not choose speakers that are smaller than 16 cm
Otherwise, it will not be possible to achieve acceptable sound quality in the low and mid-frequency ranges. In relation to high-frequency frequencies, this recommendation should not be followed.
Attention! In order for the sound at low frequencies to acquire bass depth, speakers of considerable size are required. If you are not going to use a subwoofer, then it is advisable to keep the front speakers to a size of 16–17 cm
The presence of a subwoofer can reduce the permissible parameters to 13 cm without loss of sound quality
If you are not going to use a subwoofer, then it is advisable to ensure that the front acoustics correspond to a size of 16–17 cm. The presence of a subwoofer can reduce the permissible parameters to 13 cm without loss of sound quality.
If it doesn't work out the first time
Even if the first attempt to find the necessary materials or tools is not crowned with success, you should put your idea aside for later, but not say goodbye to it. It's really easy to take and make a crossover. A crossover diagram for acoustics and a photo of the device in detail will help with this. It’s easy to understand, understand what it is in principle, get a visual representation, and make a decision based on the facts.
These photos clearly show that there is nothing wrong with the device. It's as simple as 5 kopecks. Both the girl and the man who attended physics classes at school and studied diligently will cope. However, you can buy a ready-made, factory-made crossover, or entrust tuning and modernization of the car's acoustic system to professionals. It just costs money.
Listening to modified Radiotehnika S-400M
And finally, we listened to the result of the improvements. We will not play compositions with recordings of the acoustics - “before” and “after”. There is no such possibility yet. But we think that this can be arranged later. There is a microphone with an amplifier. You can experiment! Maybe a little later we’ll do an article as a continuation of these three. And there will be something to listen to and compare by ear and frequency response.
I see that other experimenters also have problems recording high-quality sound through acoustics, but they do it. And we will learn.
Types of crossover
What kind of crossovers are there? There are not so many of them:
- active;
- passive;
- single-lane;
- two-way;
- three-way.
The diagram of each type will contain different elements. A passive crossover consists of coils, relays and capacitors. Its scheme is simpler. There are no boards or microcircuits in it, and it’s easier to make it yourself than an active one. Their installation scheme is also different.
The number of bands is determined by the number of bands in the acoustics, corresponding. Three-way crossovers must be connected to three-way speaker systems. A two-way speaker system and three-way crossovers, for example, are incompatible concepts. So, if the car has two-way speakers installed, there is nothing left to do but replace it or install three-way crossovers. Two-way speakers and one-way crossovers are also a bad combination. Three-way systems and one-way crossover are similar. The rule of complementarity rules here. But if you need an active or passive crossover, you can choose without thinking too much.
A passive crossover will make the system work well, although it has a number of disadvantages. It is believed that acoustics with a passive crossover will not work 100%. And this is true, because an active crossover for acoustics is more powerful. On the other hand, you need a fairly deep knowledge of physics in order to assemble an active crossover with your own hands.
It seems that the time has come to choose what you want more: for the acoustics to work at full capacity or for the sound to be acceptable. In fact, this is not entirely true. Even an active crossover can be assembled with your own hands, it just may not work out right away. As they say in such cases, patience and work will grind everything down.
A passive crossover lasts less time. So, it’s worth thinking about it, weighing the pros and cons before you start working.
What is crossover calculation
The crossover circuit may still force you to refuse to assemble the part yourself. But even the diagram will not force you to give up the prospect of installing the purchased crossover yourself. This is a modernization from the elementary category. Why not? Calculating the crossover for acoustics is the main problem. The easiest way is to use an online calculator. The calculation will be fairly accurate, although there is a possibility of errors and the result may not be satisfactory. The car speaker system will still produce the same noise, not music. What's the catch?
If you try to perform the calculation without a calculator, everything will fall into place. But not in the sense that the car audio system will immediately, as if by magic, start working well. It becomes clear that an individual approach and crossover tuning is needed.
What we know about speakers is that they have frequency, power, and impedance. The values are individual and depend on the brand and model. Calculating a crossover means knowing the resistance and frequency. It just works in theory. In practice, a person faces such a problem as instability of the resistance value. Resistance is not a constant. As the frequency changes, so does the resistance. Therefore, you need to know, at least in what range the car speaker system operates, the arithmetic average. For this you need special devices. Otherwise there is no way to know these values. Expectations should not be too high.
Case manufacturing
As walls for the column, you can use a regular sheet of MDF or chipboard. In this case, it is unacceptable to use plywood, since according to its characteristics it is very flexible and produces a strong resonance. When making a housing for the speaker system, also take into account the fact that the more air remains inside the box, the softer the bass will be. Therefore, leave as much free space as possible, but everything should be in moderation (otherwise such speakers will simply be impossible to transport).
Place the shelf so that the maximum amount of air reaches the speakers. Next, mark the places for cutting with a marker. Now you can safely cut a sheet of chipboard with a jigsaw. We also note that the edges of the cut parts of the tree should be carefully aligned. To do this, use a small construction grinder. Please note that it can work with several discs - for metal and wood. We need the latter option, since when processing such materials, the cutting element of the first type simply wears out and even smokes. Experts recommend using a petal circle.
Now the matter remains small. On the body, mark places for screwing in furniture screws and use a screwdriver to screw them in completely. In the case of screws, first make markings for them and drill through holes. That's it, the housing for the speaker system has been successfully manufactured.
Filter order and quality factor
The next parameter that you need to decide on is the order of the filter and its quality factor. This article will consider two orders, first and second.
- With the first, everything is simple: there is a coil, there is a capacitor, we calculate their parameters for the required cutoff frequency and, if necessary, adjust the values until the desired frequency response, phase response, and frequency response are obtained.
- The second order is trickier, there are already two coils and two capacitors. A parameter such as the quality factor depends on the values of the nominal values; it determines the steepness of the frequency response decline and, to some extent, the phase shift. Since the influence of the phase shift and slope cannot be speculatively estimated, all that remains is to simply choose which way to think. And think here in the direction of low quality factor, read more inductance in the coils, less capacitance in the capacitors.
How to choose an order. Here we are guided by already familiar considerations about what emitters, especially high-frequency speakers, are capable of. If a big move is contraindicated for him (as in our case), then we give preference to the second order.
To complete the picture, it should be mentioned that the order also determines the degree to which the speakers work together, but this is information for independent reflection.
Practical work
We smoothly move from theory to practice. I got vintage speakers called Kompaktbox B 9251. And the first thing that was done was listening.
With a cold stone, the sound was on average not bad, and if we speak specifically, in some places it was good, but in others it was haphazard. They refused to play with a warm lamp at all. Based on these observations, it was concluded that there was deep buried potential. An autopsy showed that German engineers decided to make do with one single capacitor in series with the RF head. The frequency response measurement gave a terrible picture. In the figure, the frequency response of one speaker, a curve with a deep hole at 6 kHz due to poor connector contact, do not pay attention to it. The frequency response of HF and LF separately is given below.
Flattening filters
Now the final stage begins - mixing the filters. It's time to wind the coils. or not to reel? You are always too lazy to wind, there are no wires, frames, or specific inductance values. In view of these reasons, after searching in the trash, we found pairs of 0.8 mcg and 3 mcg coils - we had to build on them. In extreme cases, you can always rewind or unwind the excess.
The graph shows that the section fell into the region of 1.8 kHz, which fits well within the intended boundaries. By selecting capacitors we managed to achieve the following impedance. There are two bumps at the crossover frequency, but their height is less than half an ohm - this is not critical. This is not its final form; subsequently the resistor in the Zobel circuit of the tweeter was slightly increased.
The above pictures show the frequency response of both the filter itself and the frequency response of the speakers with it turned on.
Car radio CD Kenwood KDC-300UV 1DIN 4×50W
Availability: out of stock
Best review
Advantages: Huge functionality: three pairs of lines, 13-band equalizer, built-in crossover that can resolve a three-band. It cuts mids from both below and above, and it cuts tweeters from 1 kHz to 12.3 kHz.
Description
Here is a modern and easy-to-use turntable Kenwood KDC-300UV. The presented device was designed by talented Kenwood engineers exclusively from high-quality materials in accordance with advanced technologies. This means you can be 100% confident in the impeccable quality of the device. The Kenwood KDC-300UV turntable is equipped with a revolutionary 24-bit digital-to-analog converter that improves acoustic quality, as well as a three-band equalizer, which is also designed to ensure that music sounds perfect. The built-in low-pass filter will ensure that the music does not hurt your ears. The advantage of the device is its ability to play music from smartphones. Kenwood KDC-300UV is able to interact correctly with mobile devices running Android, iPhone, and iPod. Playing music is also possible from flash drives. For this purpose, the front panel of the car player is equipped with a USB port.
System sound
And of course we must say about the sound. It got better, the scene turned out very good. The curvature of the frequency response is not particularly audible; on the contrary, the rise in the middle lends itself to detail; oddly enough, there is enough highs. An interesting effect was noticed on the bass. As you can see from the frequency response at a hundred hertz there is a big rise, followed by a drop, of course there is no pumping bass, but there is mid bass. For example, the guitar part seems a little lost, but the lower bass, the bass guitar part, seems to move into the audible area and is read very clearly, giving the impression of having that same low bass.
Of course, the boxes are too small, and sometimes you can hear the muttering, to eliminate this effect, 30 grams of natural wool were added to each column. In general, this acoustics plays warmly and softly even without a tube amplifier, maintaining the rigor and precision of stone in the sound, but with a warm tube it turns out to be too soft. Still, they need a stricter amplifier - a triode or push-pull, but this is a topic for the next experiments. Especially for the Radio Circuits website - SecretTUseR.
Source
How to properly connect an audio crossover?
When connecting a 2-way crossover for speakers, consider the following guidelines:
- The cutoff frequency must correspond to the frequency characteristics of HF and midrange emitters;
- the level of the input signal should not exceed the values specified in the documentation for the emitters.
Before buying an audio crossover, consult with our specialists in any of the following ways:
- call by phone (Moscow);
- in the VKontakte group;
- chat with the online manager.
Get rid of standard factory speakers and order a modern component system right now!
Creating a car audio system is not an easy task. But as a result, you can get a powerful and effective sound with many shades. This audio system will help brighten up any trip. Crossovers and other types of car audio equipment are made taking into account all modern user requirements, are distinguished by outstanding quality and excellent service life. With their help, you can assemble the ideal acoustics that meet all your requirements in order to enjoy the multifaceted sound of your favorite music.
What is crossover car audio?
— the most significant elements in high-quality car acoustics are considered to be a crossover and a sound power amplifier. Also, one of the most important factors for creating an ideal sound picture inside a car is the correct choice and qualified installation of these devices in the car, otherwise it will be very difficult to obtain high-quality sound.
Crossover
Basically, the device board, which consists of various filters to separate the incoming audio signal into frequencies, is housed in a small housing. For high frequencies, when tuning, they usually take a unit from 80 to 100 Hz, and for low frequencies, the bandpass RC filter is set from 2 to 6 kHz. There are two types of such devices - active and passive. p>
What is crossover car audio?
— they differ from each other in that the active module is made of electronic elements, such as operational amplifiers, microcontrollers and others, which require supply voltage. A passive frequency separation device is assembled using components that do not require a power source. In addition, there is some peculiarity in the installation, for example: the active crossover is installed only in the input circuit of the amplifier, and the passive ones are located anywhere, both in front of the amplifier and after it, that is, in front of the dynamic radiator.
It is worth noting an important advantage of passive crossovers, such as its ability to differentiate audio signals for a three-way loudspeaker while using only two power amplifier channels. A negative point is the impossibility of setting up the device without modifying the circuit. The opposite is true for actively used crossovers; its controls and settings are located on the outside of the body, so this design solution provides maximum convenience when operating the device.
The disadvantage of an active frequency separation device is its relatively high price, the need for a power amplifier for each channel, as well as the existing possibility of distortion emanating from active components. What is crossover car audio?
— the choice of crossover is made based on the parameters of the speaker system and the number of bands it has. As for the choice when purchasing and choosing the installation location, as well as fine-tuning it, in this case it would be more advisable to invite an experienced specialist so that there are no problems in the future.
Amplifier
There are times when, after purchasing even an expensive car radio, the amplifier in it turns out to be not of sufficient quality. Why does this happen? One of the important reasons is the small amount of space intended to accommodate the radio and, as a result, the inability to implement an amplifier with higher power in the system. Therefore, car owners who want to get a high-quality sound picture install an additional power amplifier
.
Amplifiers installed in a car come with one amplification channel (monoblock), two-channel (stereo), three-channel (stereo + another channel for a subwoofer), there are also four-channel ones designed to amplify the sound in the front and rear of the speaker system
. There are also amplifiers for five and six channels.
By what criteria should you choose a car amplifier?
What is crossover car audio?
— the first thing you need to pay attention to when buying a device is the rated power, which should be approximately 15% less than the power of the speakers. If this dependence is ignored, the acoustics may simply “burn out” soon. Another important parameter is the total load resistance with which the device can effectively operate.
A complex of several amplifiers creates the conditions for their inclusion in a bridge circuit, in which the total output power increases in proportion to the connected amplifiers. Basically, this connection scheme is used for use in a subwoofer. The industry produces a large amount of amplification equipment with already integrated crossovers, but the use of external devices greatly simplifies the setup and maintenance of car speakers.
Installation specifics
The relatively small dimensions of the car amplifier allow it to be installed in various places in the cabin. One of these options is the lower part of the rear shelf, which can be secured there using self-tapping screws or in the space of the wing. When you assemble a subwoofer yourself or have it made to order, you create an excellent opportunity to immediately install an amplifier inside the housing. But it must be taken into account that it gets quite hot during operation, and therefore it is necessary to provide the amplifier with sufficient cooling.
In order to install an acoustic system in your car without incurring very high costs, the smartest thing to do would be to take coaxial or broadband speakers, installing them in the standard places of the car, and use an amplifier
built into the car radio. In the future, if necessary, the installed audio system can be upgraded by adding an active subwoofer made in its own housing.
In a high-quality audio system, the main role is played by stereo or multi-channel speaker systems.
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Learn how to adjust the sound of speakers and subwoofer on a Pioneer radio with your own hands
Setting up the Pioneer radio in the car begins with resetting the current settings. As a result, the equalizer filters for the HPF speakers and LPF subwoofer will return to the factory settings. This can be done in two ways: find the corresponding section in the car radio menu or disconnect the ground terminal from the battery. Note that the following method for setting up the radio is designed for an entry-level user, and there is nothing overly complicated in it. But also, the quality of the reproduced sound depends only 33% on the composition and quality of the audio system components. Another third depends on the correct installation of the equipment, and the remaining 33% depends on the correct setup of the audio system.
Crossover Frequency
Now is the time to think about the frequency of the section. Typically, the crossover frequency is selected on flat horizontal sections, away from resonances and blockages, trying to avoid sudden irregularities as potential sources of distortion. And if you remember that there is a phase about which little is known, and if it is known, then you can’t add up the vector response on a piece of paper, and because of the curvature of the phases, even on a perfectly flat response, something will come out, something will fail to a greater or lesser extent. You also need to remember what the speaker itself, especially the high frequency, can provide; for example, you shouldn’t force an inch dome to play from two, much less one, kilohertz, even if it is capable of playing them back according to the frequency response.
Don't forget that high excursion creates intermodulation distortion, so each speaker size has its own frequency range. In light of the above, the concept of crossover frequency is spread out over the area where it is worth mixing, and the end point is selected differently, for example by ear. Or not to select at all, but more on that later.
So, let's look at what unique speakers we got. The high-frequency driver begins to fall at 1.3 kHz, which means it cannot be allowed lower. On the other hand, the subwoofer tries to play at as low as 10 kHz, with varying degrees of success. However, common sense dictates that launching it above kilohertz is a bad idea. And what should you do if the operating ranges of the speakers do not intersect?
There are two options: if the declines have an adequate steepness, then it is best to drive into a hole, especially if the hole turns out to be wide. In our case, when the declines are as steep as cliffs, we must stay away from the steepest of them. Most often, this can happen with a high-frequency driver; it is always difficult for them to work at the lower limit of the range, so it is more expedient for them to make their life easier by entrusting the reproduction of the lower part of the range to a low-frequency speaker, which will play at least poorly, but will not spoil. Therefore, we limit the range to the area from 1.5 kHz to 2.2 kHz.
Properties of processor radios
Car radios with a built-in processor provide the same high sound quality as external sound processors.
Some radios only have certain processor functions, so pay attention to what the manufacturer offers before purchasing. The presence of a processor implies: digital crossover, equalizer, six-channel time correction
You can buy a car radio in Odessa, Kharkov, Kyiv, as well as with delivery throughout Ukraine, at 130.com.ua.
It is these functions that allow you to shift the sound or concentrate it at one point. So, you will not feel louder sound, for example, from a nearby speaker.
Don't forget that sound quality depends on all the devices that are present in the sound stage. The processor is just a way to customize the sound.
Disadvantages are the high cost of such car radios and rather complicated setup. Keep in mind that processor models also require the correct placement of acoustics. If you do not have the necessary skills, it is better to immediately turn to specialists.
Thorough assembly
How to make a three-way speaker system with your own hands? After you have made the case (the so-called “monoblock”), you can begin to thoroughly assemble the structure. Here it is best to use a cordless screwdriver with a 4mm hexagon to tighten the screws. Remember that inside the speaker its own sound load is distributed from minimum to maximum - bottom wall, top, front and side.
How then do you make an acoustic system with your own hands? At the next stage, the joints should be treated with silicone sealant. This is necessary in order to prevent excess sound waves from penetrating from the housing to the outside through the cracks. Thus, the level of music playback will become even better. How then do you make an acoustic system with your own hands? After lubricating all the cracks with sealant, you will need to install the speakers and radio. The latter is best purchased assembled. The speakers, together with the radio, are installed through holes made in the bottom wall of the monoblock.
When everything is ready, the final design should look like this: on the back of the monoblock there is a power supply, two speakers on the sides (with each of them located in a separate column) and a car radio in the middle. Making speaker systems with your own hands occurs in a certain order of actions - first the power supply is mounted, and then the radio tape recorder. This will make it much more convenient for you to screw fasteners. But at this stage, the speaker system for TV and PC has not yet been fully assembled. Next, you will need to reinforce the corners. We will tell you about this in the next section.
