Need 2 chan amp and x-over

[vactor]

i am building a set of sub (small sub) cabinets that will use a long throw 7 inch as the sub as speaker stands for my monitor speakers. i need a small 2x75 or 2x100 into 8 ohm amplifier and a simple 2 way electronic crossover. i am on a SEVERE budget and would like to stay around $200 for both. no problems going used. the hardest to find seems to be the crossover, which are crazy expensive. i think that as far as the amplifier, there should be some pro audio ones that hsould fit my bill. anyone have any suggestions? thanks!!

[David Meek]

Victor, I moved this thread into our DIY forum. You'll get much more attention regarding building of cabinets, cross-overs and sub-amps here.

[Andrew Pratt]

Why not just get two plate amps? They'd have a built in crossover and provide the power you need.

100 watt model

70 watt model

[JonMarsh]

Vactor, your best bet is going to be perusing Audiogon and see what turns up in your price range. My first recommendations usually for electronic crossovers is the Marchand kits, or their assembled units if you're not handy with a soldering iron; but even on sale, as a special this month for $499, that's well outside your price target. And you want an amplifier, too! Marchand also has passive line level electronic crossovers (XM46); available in their chasis or just as a module; no active devices in the signal path, which is a plus in my book. But, a mono board only kit is $120.

In the pre-assembled Pro sound area,

this ART crossover is only $149, and this Behringer CX2310 is only $90, $65 after rebate. Then you just have to find a budget used amplifier.




~Jon

[Saurav]

If you're building two subs, then you don't need a sum-to-mono for the sub channel, right? In other words, all you need are 2 2-way crossovers. You could buy one of the cheap Marchand units and that should work fine. This one, for instance:

http://www.marchandelec.com/xm1.html

The frequency is set through plug-in boards, and those are cheap, about $6 each or so. So you can buy a handful of frequency modules around your planned XO frequency and play around to see what works best. Or you could change resistor values and change the frequency too, I think. This is a 4th order L-R XO, and it's down in the bass frequencies, so I think you could ignore phase/damping controls and get by OK for a budget system.

Another option is John Pomann's XO kit which can be found here:

http://ldsg.snippets.org/FILTERS/Pomann/crossover.htm

$75 gets you enough parts to build a pretty complex XO. The only catch is that you'll have to build the whole thing yourself, and there are no PCBs. I've bought this kit, and the instructions with it are pretty good, so if you're more or less comfortable soldering, this should not be a problem. The schematics and layout diagrams are pretty good for beginners.

[vactor]

i must say that i am rather dissappointed and suprised by the lack of, and the price of, electronic crossovers for home use. ahving cocme from a car audio background, i am used to HUNDREDS of available active crossover brands and models. the selection and useability of the home audio crossovers is rather pathetic. i am surprised that no manufacturers ahve jumped on the active bandwagon. it is rather common to find car audio crossovers with continuously variable frequencies, adjustable slopes, available boost and overlap configurations for about $150 or so. to find the same thing for home audio is not only plain IMPOSSIBLE, but would cost well over a grand! someone (adire? CSS? Avelanche? anyone) needs to jump on this and make some useable and inexpensive ones available. as it is, i am gonna scrounge audiogon and ebay. also, i cannot find a cheap way to use unbalanced single ended RCA outputs from the preamp and get them converted to XLR's ... which is pretty much exclusively what pro audio gear uses ...

[ThomasW]

Most prosound gear has TR/TSR inputs. Those take 1/4" and many can be used as single ended inputs

[CJ Paul]

Blue Jeans cables will make custom XLR to RCA cables for a reasonable (IMO) price. All they need is the pin-out info for the XLR end so they know how to solder it.

[vactor]

well, if i get the 1/4" single ended inputs on, say, a rane AC22 crossover, can i just make my own rca > 1/4" cables? or can i get some adapter cables? it's just soo frustrating considering how easy something like this (and inexpensive) it would be in car audio. maybe i will just use a car audio crossover and an ac/dc converter for it. would sure solve my crossover problems in a jiffy.

[Dennis H]

Edit: never mind.....