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I have been looking for a good cheap crossover solution for a while now. I have tried doing a DIY passive line level crossover PLLXO. That worked great for about $13 but 2nd order slope wasn't sharp enough for me, plus the XO point is static so you just have to either get lucky or guess and build a couple of these things.
Also I tried ripping apart a cheap home theater in a box subwoofer and using the amp and electronics out of that for sub amplification, gain, crossover and phase control. It worked and for $0 it worked quite well (the HTIB sub was left over in my attic from one of my room mates moving out). But it still seemed to be only a 2nd order XO and the amplification was mediocre sounding.
Then 2 days ago I found out about software active crossovers. I have an old p3 800 laying around and an audigy 2 Zs soundcard for it so I decided to try that route. There are a few options the foobar2000 music player has an active crossover plugin FooXOdsp. This works with any soundcard that has 2 or more outputs and seems to be pretty flexible. There are a few other options linked on the fooxodsp web page.
Also if you have an EMU 10k1 or 10k2 based soundcard (most SB Live and Audigy cards) You can use the KX Project drivers for it which allows for all kinds of nifty things done to the sound at the driver level including crossover and mono sum. I am using this route and have done away with my preamp completely for the moment. I have the PC hooked up to an Arcam amp driving my mains using a 75hz 4th order highpass. The sub is driven by a HCA-1000 using mono summing and then a 75hz 4th order lowpass filter and a phase adjustment dsp. It sounds pretty darn good. It is hard to say if the PC/Soundcard combo sounds better/worse than my Parasound PHP-850 preamp did but the sub blends so much better with my mains that in my opinion the overall set up sounds much much better.
Want to try bi amping or even tri amping but dont have an active crossover and don't want to buy one to try it out. Or mabye you're just always broke like me? Use your PC, so far I am satisfied with the way it sounds and am having alot of fun.
Also I tried ripping apart a cheap home theater in a box subwoofer and using the amp and electronics out of that for sub amplification, gain, crossover and phase control. It worked and for $0 it worked quite well (the HTIB sub was left over in my attic from one of my room mates moving out). But it still seemed to be only a 2nd order XO and the amplification was mediocre sounding.
Then 2 days ago I found out about software active crossovers. I have an old p3 800 laying around and an audigy 2 Zs soundcard for it so I decided to try that route. There are a few options the foobar2000 music player has an active crossover plugin FooXOdsp. This works with any soundcard that has 2 or more outputs and seems to be pretty flexible. There are a few other options linked on the fooxodsp web page.
Also if you have an EMU 10k1 or 10k2 based soundcard (most SB Live and Audigy cards) You can use the KX Project drivers for it which allows for all kinds of nifty things done to the sound at the driver level including crossover and mono sum. I am using this route and have done away with my preamp completely for the moment. I have the PC hooked up to an Arcam amp driving my mains using a 75hz 4th order highpass. The sub is driven by a HCA-1000 using mono summing and then a 75hz 4th order lowpass filter and a phase adjustment dsp. It sounds pretty darn good. It is hard to say if the PC/Soundcard combo sounds better/worse than my Parasound PHP-850 preamp did but the sub blends so much better with my mains that in my opinion the overall set up sounds much much better.
Want to try bi amping or even tri amping but dont have an active crossover and don't want to buy one to try it out. Or mabye you're just always broke like me? Use your PC, so far I am satisfied with the way it sounds and am having alot of fun.
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