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Changing crossover point

iplay5strings

iplay5strings

Aug 10, 2007
1,177
707
Waterford, MI
www.adamsaylorbass.com
#1
Has anyone messed with changing the tweeter's crossover point in their bass cabs, more specifically a Goliath III? It's a well known fact that these things are harsh and clicky...and it mostly has to do with the crossover not being correct. It's either too low because the crossover is really only a high-pass filter to the tweeter while keeping the woofers full range and @ 5k the tweeter is probably overlapping to low into the speakers usable frequency range thus causing the harsh tone. Or, it's set too high. With 10" woofers not having a very extended upper frequency usability with some even rolling off as early as 800Hz having a true crossover sending only 5k+ only to the tweeter and everything below that only to the woofers it might be set to high leaving a "gap" in the response curve also making the tweeter sound harsh. Thoughts?
 
#2
I'll go low tech here.
If you get some small chunks of acoustic phone and hang them in front of the tweeter you can adjust the sound. Sometimes a piece of felt to really cut the sound.

There's even a foam donut looking thing you can hang in front of low freq drivers to give them better dispersions of highs.
 
#7
For anyone who's curious about a "conclusion" to this...after reading many spec sheets on pro level loudspeakers (EAW, Yamaha, JBL, etc) most 2 way setups with a 10" driver have the tweeter crossed over @ 2kHz. I also noticed after looking at speaker companies (like Eminence and a few others) that most 10" bass speaker's usable frequency range goes from the 40-45Hz area to the 2kHz area. That being said I believe with a 4x10 bass cab (SWR GIII in my case) crossing the tweeter over @ 2kHz will give the cab more full spectrum, "studio monitor" type sound reproduction considering the usable frequency range of a 10" driver. So once I find the correct wattage the crossover needs to be for my cab(s) I will be installing a 2kHz crossover in at least one of my cabs.
 
#8
plenty of bass cabs allow you to switch the crossover point of the horn, like the boogies, where 3k is bright and cutting (harsh, even), while 5K creates more of a smooth "sheen". they all usually keep the drivers full-range, though.
 
#9
Whatever you do, I would leave the woofer full range. Your simple high pass is likely just a blocking cap that doesn't muck with the sound too much. A full crossover with caps and inductors can cause a lot of other phase problems and must also be able to safely handle the full woofer power continuously.

In my experience, harshness is the driver itself, not the crossover. You might just turn it off.
 
#10
Gio S said:
Whatever you do, I would leave the woofer full range. Your simple high pass is likely just a blocking cap that doesn't muck with the sound too much. A full crossover with caps and inductors can cause a lot of other phase problems and must also be able to safely handle the full woofer power continuously.

In my experience, harshness is the driver itself, not the crossover. You might just turn it off.
Click to expand...

After talking to a few speaker builders and the techs @ parts express...I decided to do a sine wave test with tweeter on and off since I was informed that instrument drivers vs "woofers" are voiced quite differently and can respond up to 3.5k and even up 6k. Well without the tweeter on the drivers responded pretty strong up to around 5k but then the volume started to drop off pretty severely. With the tweeter on there was a spike in volume @ 4k which tapered back down around 6k meaning the tweeter is overlaping too much with the drivers. So if I shift the highpass filter to 6k instead of 5k it should soften that hotspot therefore "softening" up the tweeter. I may have to set it even higher but I think 6k is a good starting point.
 

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