I'm a first time, complete rookie, speaker designer. I am researching and planning baffle design and crossover, prior to actually buying any parts. I have a question that I haven't seen answers for in my searches. I am working on a 2 way bookshelf speaker.
If my woofer is 86db @2.83v, and the tweeter is 89.68db @2.83v; is it ALWAYS necessary to install an L-pad on the crossover circuit? Or do the drivers need to be tested in the baffle first to see if a pad is even necessary? Is it possible to build a crossover without a pad with these two drivers and have them balance in volume?
If my woofer is 86db @2.83v, and the tweeter is 89.68db @2.83v; is it ALWAYS necessary to install an L-pad on the crossover circuit? Or do the drivers need to be tested in the baffle first to see if a pad is even necessary? Is it possible to build a crossover without a pad with these two drivers and have them balance in volume?
I couldn't find an L-pad rated higher than 100 watts, if I wanted to place a 140wpc amplifier on the speaker bi-wired, then a 100 watt L-Pad attenuator couldn't handle 140 watts right? Or the attenuator would filter the input signal down to 100 watts?
The 120W RMS will relate to the power of the system the tweeter can be hooked into via its recommended crossover.
The tweeter only sees a small percentage of the total system power via its crossover - typically only 10-20%.
Matching sensitivity is one of the crucial steps in getting a balanced freq response. It is tempting to leave the tweeter too bright at first, but this leads to listening fatigue. (it takes some ear training/measurements to be sure you've got it right).
I suggest you buy one low power variable L pad, fit it with alligator clips, and once you've found the desired level, measure the arms of the L pad and replace it with fixed resistors.
I suggest you buy one low power variable L pad, fit it with alligator clips, and once you've found the desired level, measure the arms of the L pad and replace it with fixed resistors.
What is a commonly agreed-upon range of sensitivity between the woofer and tweeter in a 2-way setup that doesn't really need or require a pad? Is it less than 1 db? For instance, if the tweeter is 89db and the woofer 88.5, with a .5 db difference, is a pad even necessary? I imagine the answer is always "it should be tested first", I'm just looking for a common theory rather than a deliberate answer to a deliberate pair of drivers.
That would be too easy.
Probably you need to do some baffle step compensation (read more woofer output).
Read some articles about BSC, here's one.
Are you saying the woofer needs to be more sensitive?
For baffle step I was planning on making the baffle and box design as a sphere or semi-spherical.
It will be the woofer that determine how much the tweeter needs to be attenuated, tweeters are usually more sensitive and don't need BSC.
Due to the baffle step your woofer will loose some dbs below 500Hz, let's say 4db (depends on cabinet shape, placement, room, voicing)
So you will need to attenuate the tweeter accordingly.
Due to the baffle step your woofer will loose some dbs below 500Hz, let's say 4db (depends on cabinet shape, placement, room, voicing)
So you will need to attenuate the tweeter accordingly.
If my baffle is spherical, is it even likely to have much baffle step to deal with that I need a more sensitive tweeter to dial back?
Okay, so a 12inch spherical baffle would have a 380hz baffle step at .5-1db, estimated. So if my crossover is set to 4,500hz, I could probably only experience some light emphasis of signal on the tweeter?
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