Choosing Crossover Freq. ??

[ruffwood]

I have a question about chosing the crossover freq. for a two way crossover. I am using 2 Goldwood 8" 4 ohm woofers (FR 45-7000 Hz) in series and a Dayton 1" titanium tweeter (FR 3000-20000 Hz). Sort of following David Weems design in "Great Sound Stereo Speaker Manual" project 11. closed box. My question is where is the prefered crossover frequency. The speaker overlap is from 3000 to 7000 Hz. Is the best place for crossover right in the middle at 5000 Hz. ?

[ThomasW]

Well we tend to do things a little differently from David Weems.

The best way to design a crossover is to measure the drivers installed in the baffle where they will be used. Then design the crossover based on the results of those measurements.

Randomly choosing a crossover point from some chart, or using a generic filter set is problematic.

If you don't have the testing gear use the manfacturer's published frequency response data.

Using 8" drivers as high as 5K isn't a good idea. The best thing will be to crossover as low as is reasonable for the tweeter. This will avoid beaming that occurs when larger drivers like the 8" are reproducing higher frequencies

[ruffwood]

This is my first attempt at speaker building so I do not have testing equipement. What is as low as reasonable for the Dayton DC25T-8 1" tweeter with a published freq. response of 3000-20000 Hz.

[ThomasW]

Sorry but looking at the specs there is no way these drivers can properly function in a 2-way system. You'll need to use a midrange to get any kind of decent sound.

The other option is to return the drivers and purchase ones that will work in a 2-way.