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Capacitor as Crossover for High Pass?

Hello,

Please excuse my ignorance here. I have read various opinions on the use of either passive or electronic (active) crossovers, or both, in the forum. Hoping I can get some advice on the following and if what I'm planning makes sense.

I have a pair of satellites and my thoughts are to add a pair of bass panels for the lower frequencies. I will be bi-amping (SET tube for sats and SS for bass panels). My thoughts are to use a passive crossover (high quality capacitor) for the high pass to the satellites and an electronic crossover for the low pass to the bass panels.

If someone could please tell me, if I do install a capacitor as the high pass, where is the capacitor installed? Between the amp and speaker, between the pre and amp? Also, how do I affix the capacitior to either the speaker cable or the amplifier? Is the capicitor housed within an enclosure of some type?

Thank you very much for any help you could give and if I'm off my rocker please let me know.

Best Regards,

Lee V.
hvowell

Showing 2 responses by timlub

timlub
2,038 posts
 
I just picked up on this thread today. I haven't been posting on Audiogon for long, but I've been in or around speakers and building for 32 years. A Simple capacitor circuit should not cause any damage to your speakers or amplifier. What you will find is that your panels will swing in impedence at given frequencies and your capacitor will not properly cross your speakers at a given point like your are probably after. If you can get impedence readings, you can put a simple impedence correction circuit in your speaker leads at your speaker to help. This is common and works, but when you say thay you are using panels, I assume that you mean planars, ribbons or electrostatics. Electro statics will not like a cap, planars and ribbons will handle the cap, but correction circuitry will most likely stabilize them at a lower impedence. With all this confusion said, it is a much better idea to go active filters... Unfortunately a poor filter can really contaminate the sound of a good amplifier and a great filter is a lot of money. My best advice is to use your panels full range and adjust your subwoofer to blend or spend the money on a good high pass active filter. Some panels do have some pre made crossovers for passive high pass (maggies). Good luck
timlub
2,038 posts
 
Sorry, I just re read the thread and mis read a bit. I would not use panels for bass. I gave you info for panels as your main speakers and traditional drivers in a subwoofer. This should make my posting make more since.
Other mentioned phasing and frequency ripples. At the low frequencies that you are talking about using, there should not be any issues here. 36 or 48 db per octave @ 100 hz will do a good job, I would not cross the woofer at 125hz, even with steep slopes, on occasion it will become directional, you will hear where it is in the room. Try to keep your crossover at 100 or lower. The higher the frequency the more phasing will be a problem in imaging. In the lower frequencies, it will can affect bass output if the drivers become too far out of phase, but this should not be a big problem with active crossovers. Good luck
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