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1st Order Xovers....A question of absolute volume.

...I spent a couple of nights with a friend's Green Mountain Audio Europas this weekend. I was very impressed with much of what they do, especially for what is really a small speaker. My only concern was with the ability to play loud. Now I don't expect them to match my larger Montanas in output, but what about larger full range 1st order designs? Do they have absolute volume issues because of the type of xover? I am looking at a larger pair of Roy's speakers, the Imagos from the 90s. But I don't want to give up the dynamics and ease of presentation of my SPXs, which have become quite addictive. Any thoughts?

Oz
128x128ozzy62
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drubin
3,265 posts
 
You might ask Roy. He likes to crank the rock music so I'd be surprised if the Imagos won't play LOUD.
gregm
3,395 posts
 
The xover slope shouldn't impact on the max spl of a spkr... it's the drivers that do.
Dunlavy produced huge sealed spkrs with 1st order (I think). They play very loud...
rhljazz
1,249 posts
 
The Imago's will play plenty loud. I have a pair of Diamante's and they can hit peaks of 105 db in my room. I heard the Imago's at the Green Mountain factory years ago and they will play louder than the Diamantes.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
A first order crossover will let more LF signal into the tweeter, and so might limit volume to a lower level than what the same drivers could deliver using a steeper crossover. However, if you use a first order crossover the crossover frequency can be increased so as to avoid this problem. Of course, the woofer must now reproduce higher frequency, which is another problem. (This is why higher order crossovers were invented).
elevick
2,636 posts
 
I don't understand why a crossover type will limit the power/volume of a speaker. The crossover will either cut off at a slope of 6db, 12db or 18db for most speakers (1st, 2nd & 3rd order). This just means how much overlap in signal you will have between the woofer and tweeter. A good design will not be affected by power???
ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62 OP
2,830 posts
 
After speaker with Roy, it sounds like the Europas have a bad tweeter, more than likely caused by the previous owner underpowering them. Since I have no way of confirming/denying that I caused the damage, I have offered to pay for new tweeters. So this is the answer to the mystery of why they seemed to have limited volume capability, which in a way makes me feel better now.

Oz
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
>> After speaker with Roy, it sounds like the Europas have
>> a bad tweeter,.........
>> So this is the answer to the mystery of why they seemed
>> to have limited volume capability, which in a way makes
>> me feel better now

& me too! whew! that was good mystery solved by you!
too bad that the bad tweeter was discovered on your watch.

>> Since I have no way of confirming/denying that I caused
>> the damage, I have offered to pay for new tweeters.
that is indeed very nice of you!
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