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Wayne, crossover and L-pad confusion [message #51845] Sun, 24 February 2008 14:48 Go to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Happened upon this site today which coincides with my day to try L-pads. There's an explanation of L-pads and an attenuation chart.

I installed an 8 ohm L-pad on the B&C DE-250/2226J left channel and couldn't find a setting that mated with the right. The L-pad channel sounded crisper and maybe 'brighter'. Figured the difference was the .33 cap so I clipped it. Now I could balance the sound of the left, L-pad and right 24ohm fixed speakers.

First confoosion: what accounts for the large discrepancy between the attenuation values of this guys chart: 5.47 R1 and 3.7 R2 and yours: 24ohm R1 and 16ohm R2 for 10dB attenuation with an 8 ohm driver?

Second confoosian: With the L-pad in place on the left channel and 24 ohms fixed on the right w/o a cap, the 2 channels seemed to match with the L-pad reading about 6 ohms for both R1 (terminals 2&3)and R2 (1&2).

Remind of you nude parallel resistors on the beach?

Top octave augmentation for compression horn tweeters [message #51846 is a reply to message #51845] Sun, 24 February 2008 16:54 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18681
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

The typical 8Ω L-Pad is designed to maintain impedance of 8Ω to the source. This, of course, assumes two things, neither of which are true. The first assumption is that the load is a fixed 8Ω resistance. Loudspeakers aren't. The second assumption is that a constant 8Ω load to the source is desirable. In most cases this is true, but in this case, it's not.

The values I've chosen for the compression driver horn circuit are purpose-designed to provide a little less damping to the crossover circuit than what you get from 8Ω. This makes a response curve with flat response from the crossover point up to the frequency where HF augmentation begins. A typical L-Pad with bypass capacitance would make response be a diagonal line from the crossover point up. That's why a compression horn using a typical L-Pad sounds thin to you. The power response of a compression driver is flat for a couple octaves, then starts falling off after that. The conjugate of this is to be flat for a couple octaves, and then start augmentation. That's exactly what we get from the values used in the π crossover:

http://www.pispeakers.com/Top_Octave_Compensation.gif
Tweeter output from the π crosover


Re: OK, I'll quit re-inventing the wheel [message #51848 is a reply to message #51846] Sun, 24 February 2008 17:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Got this bug about the L-pads because of them on the GP Altec 704 co-ax crossover. Of course, they have capacitors.

Where can I find the 4 Pi Pro crossover attenuation chart? My copy from, omigosh, 6 years ago(?) is among the missing.

Never! [message #51850 is a reply to message #51848] Sun, 24 February 2008 18:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18681
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Never quit experimenting! That's at least half the fun!

Here's the chart for 1" compression drivers. It only works for crossovers designed for 8Ω and with (second-order and higher) crossover frequencies around 1.6kHz.
Attenuation ( < 5kHz ) R1 R2 C1
==============================================
6dB 12Ω 30Ω 0.47µF
8dB 12Ω 20Ω 0.47µF
10dB 16Ω 16Ω 0.47µF
12dB 25Ω 16Ω 0.47µF
14dB 30Ω 14Ω 0.33µF
16dB 40Ω 12Ω 0.33µF
18dB 50Ω 12Ω 0.22µF
20dB 75Ω 12Ω 0.22µF
==============================================

R2 is connected across the crossover tweeter output. R1 is connected after that, placed in series with the driver. C1 is connected in parallel across R1.

I've tried these values on 1.2kHz crossovers and they work well, but once you get much below that, the values change. That's because of the reactive values of the crossover. The chart is different for 1kHz and below. I've worked out values for 1kHz, 800Hz and 600Hz, so let me know if you need them and I'll post them. But frankly, I wouldn't use a PSD2002 below 1kHz, not even with flea-power. I don't know about the DE250.

Understand that the selection of these values isn't really so much about crossover frequency as it is about the inductances and capacitances in the tweeter circuit. I'm talking about it in terms of crossover frequency as a sort of shorthand, since the values required to make a 1.6kHz crossover for an 8Ω driver fall into a fairly narrow range of values. But if you were to range too far away from typical crossover values, the chart might have to be altered too.


Re: Pi Align strikes again! [message #51852 is a reply to message #51850] Tue, 26 February 2008 04:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
I went from 12dB to 10. I used 12 originally because I didn't have a .47 cap and 10 with a .33 sounded 'wrong'.

16 and 16 ohms, R1 & R2 with a .47 cap gives much better integration of the drivers. I'm even more amazed now with the quality of the B&C DE-250.

Re: Upon further review [message #51853 is a reply to message #51852] Tue, 26 February 2008 12:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Doing some serious listening today, being unemployed is the best!

Got in the last 3 Cheskys I needed to complete the set from Jason. His Moondog operation, BTW, is the class act in the biz as far as I'm concerned. I've gotten 5 LPs now, and each one is cleaned and placed in a new sleve before it ships. Condition is just as he represents and the prices, considering the quality, are reasonable.

The Sibelius 2nd Symph showed me the 10dB atten. wasn't enough so I went to 12. Oboes sounded like English Horn and Trumpets, strident. Much better now.

Maybe...just a tad more atten. is called for, have to listen some more. Kinda on the cusp. If so, don't know whether to go back to the .33uF cap with the 24ohms or keep the .47 and add a few more ohms.



What about 16ohm drivers [message #51854 is a reply to message #51850] Tue, 26 February 2008 14:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kim Schultz is currently offline  Kim Schultz
Messages: 85
Registered: May 2009
Viscount
Hi Wayne.

I use Altec 902-16HF drivers in my front and center PI7 speakers, this is the normal 902 driver with a 16ohm voicecoil.

After playing around with Spice and measuring the driver with the crossover, I arrived with these values:

R1 = 33ohm
R2 = 12ohm
C1 = 0.22uF

This gives a load of about 9.5ohm on the crossover, where the normal lpad with the Eminence driver, gives a load of about 9.4ohm.

All good so far, but I really can´t seem to remember how to calculate how many db´s this lpad is damping.

Do you have another chart for 16ohm drivers on hand ?

I have another question regarding lpad with topend compensation.

After much consideration I have bought four Eminence Beta 8A drivers, and eight BMS4524 drivers with 18Sound XT120 horns for my bipole surround speaker project.

I will be running the BMS4524 drivers in series for a resistance of 14-16ohms.

Can I just use the same lpad as above (if the sound levels match), or are there a better way to do this ?

I was thinking of using a single coil on the woofer, and a third order crossover at about 2200hz on the hf drivers.

Btw, these drivers are excellent, they sound really nice and the horns are good too.

Correction [message #51855 is a reply to message #51854] Wed, 27 February 2008 03:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kim Schultz is currently offline  Kim Schultz
Messages: 85
Registered: May 2009
Viscount
I just had a look at the crossovers today and I didn´t remember all to values correct, this is the values I´m using:

C1 = 0.47uF
C2 = 10uF
R1 = 11ohm
R2 = 33ohm

When I simulate them in Spice, it seems the f3 might have shifted down a bit.

Now with measurements. [message #51856 is a reply to message #51855] Wed, 27 February 2008 07:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kim Schultz is currently offline  Kim Schultz
Messages: 85
Registered: May 2009
Viscount
I did some measurements today, see below:

The most flat is the one using the C2=8.2uF, but it does not look as much like the standard crossover, as the one using C2=10uF.

Is the reason for the peaking response around 1800hz, to compensate for the falling response of the midhorn ?


Re: Upon further review [message #51857 is a reply to message #51853] Wed, 27 February 2008 11:55 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18681
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Nice thing about that little chart is it lets you click up the attenuation in notches, keeping the same basic response curve. I'd go up a click and see how it sounds.


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