Positioning of external xovers

[VantheMan]

Just in case anyone out there uses external crossovers for his speakers. Rather than having them next to their speakers I would suggest they position them as close as poss. to the amp and then use long bi or tri-wire to the drivers . Going from my experience with my Sugden and WD25Ts, you will be very pleasantly surprised by improved clarity, dynamics etc. etc.

[stevieg]

I have a pair of WAD KLS2 with crossovers, or more accurately tweeter filter as the woofers run wide open, parked by the amp. Came in very handy when I had to tweak them when I replaced blown tweeters (curse you Sugden A48 switch on thump!) with Monacor RBT-95s. Much easier than poking around heavy speakers.

Cheers Steve

[Paul Barker]

Thanks. Stored in the thinking organ.

[B.B.C.]

Surprised to hear this as I read recently that it was better to keep them as close as possible to the speaker. Far handier for me to have them near the amps. Is there a theory behind which is better?

[rowuk]

I would think that there are compelling reasons NOT to move them away from the speaker. The crossover components are calculated and listen tested the way that the speaker is built (at least for better speakers). Taking the crossovers out and adding long distances between the crossover and driver requires a completely different tuning for the crossover. If one bothers to take the crossover out, use a line level crossover feeding separate amplifiers. The behaviour of crossover components into a resistor at the input of the amp is far superior to the effects on reactive speaker loads.

[IslandPink]

I would agree with you Rowuk regarding line-level crossovers of course ; but for conventional crossover, if you are prepared to re-tune the crossover slightly ( it's not that difficult by ear ) then there would be merit in having the crossover just near the amp then two different sorts of cable handling the bass/mid or the treble signals.

[B.B.C.]

Thnaks for your answers guys. I already bi amp and therefore use 2 sets of cables to the external crossovers. I might try them closer to the amps as its neater for me. It won't be until Spring but I will report back.

[Greg]

Ok, seen you over on WD about this. John Caswell's advise is exceedingly sound. rowuk basically supports what John said. IslandPink on the otherhand very reasonably suggested an alternative, but he is a dyed in the wool knowledgable diy tweaker. By all means take his advise provided you are prepared to start altering your crossover, being swapping out capacitors and resistors for different values (do you know which ones to try?). That might even lead you to alter the circuit as well. Are you up for that?

I would stick with the original advise and keep your networks close to your speakers. I've done it this way for years and it works fine. As I suggested to you elsewhere, getting them out of the enclosure is the key objective.

[B.B.C.]

Not sure I'm quite ready to tinker with the crossover as it would be trial and error (probably more ofbthe latter). Maybe I will leave alone after all. Thanks, Greg.