H writes:
I would almost guarantee that the person who posted this question owns Focal speakers. There has been a ton of chatter about the quality of the crossovers used in their lines. The Sopra line seems to be the one most are upset about given it’s higher price point. For the record I own both the Sopra 1s and the Sopra 2s.
I respect Focal, and I wonder if others have swapped out the crossovers in their high end speakers and found a positive improvement? I hate the idea of breaking into my speakers to “fix” something a reputable company designed.
HH writes:
The crossover is fundamental. But even more than designing for frequency balance, designing for dynamic changes and control of overhang is more important. And that is firstly a product of the transfer functions of the crossovers. Bright response, for example, is often not the product of drivers and frequency response but of poor crossover transfer response which results in ringing in that frequency band. That was often the problem with the old, bright fiberglass Focal tweeters; it wasn’t bright balance. You can design two crossovers to give the same frequency response in a speaker and the results without the sound ending up the same.
I’d trade good crossover design with good transfer function design for some more money in drivers and crossover parts.
ST writes ...
What I personally feel as critical is when users try to exchange components of a crossover. It might get better in the users ears but it can also alter the adjustment of the whole loudspeaker system. Without real laboratory measurements the user can not judge the effects of other components. If there was no change in sound so why exchanged the components? I assume that we are talking passive crossovers. The active ones are a totally different story.
FR writes:
Danny Richie from ‘GR-Research’ (a YouTube channel) can educate all of
us about the importance of employing high quality crossover components.
Air core inductors over iron core inductors every time.
Joe writes
Just like designing a good preamplifier could mean no preamplifier at all except a volume control and input selector in a passive design I wish more speaker companies would do that with the crossover. If you want the most energetic and transparent speaker try designing drivers that are so naturally compatible that their natural roll off is all that is needed. A simple high pass filter capacitor to the tweeter in a 6db per octave first order natural slope is magic. It’s what makes my vintage EPI speakers magical. You are listening to the natural roll off of the drivers that are designed by the speaker manufacturer to need no crossover at all which is the best sounding crossover if you can get the drivers to behave right.
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