the dB/octave specification of the crossover?


Hello,
I have a dumb question the dB/octave specification of the crossover. A speaker designer wrote on his Facebook that dB/octave is like the resolution of a television. For example, for the same set of drivers, if we apply a crossover with 12dB/octave, the sound won’t be as detailed as with a 50dB/octave crossover. If this is true, I wonder why there are many speakers with 12dB/octave only. Why isn't there a race in dB/octave just like 4k, 8k TV?
Thank you. 
Huy
Ag insider logo xs@2xquanghuy147
That’s a weird and misleading analogy. A steeper slope will result in fewer competing frequencies which can allow a driver to sound more refined in some cases, i.e. filtering low freqs from a midrange unit that would otherwise be subject to high excursion.

In actuality, the first-order (6db) slope could be considered higher resolution since it’s not filtering out as much bandwidth and is less subject to phase issues. Downside is it might begin to distort at lower SPLs.

A better analogy is that a steeper slope could result in an experience similar to screen calibration, though it really depends on the whole speaker and crossover design in question. 
For a nice explanation of crossover design, watch the GR Research Tech Talk Tuesday videos on YouTube. Danny Richie explains it all, in language we non-engineers can understand. His videos cover a lot of loudspeaker design topics, a few of them specifically on x/o design.