B & W signature 30

[Mikewilky]

Hi. Just been given some b & w sig. 30's. Empty cabs. B and w still sell the drivers but not the crossovers. Worth pursuing or not?

[madmac]

My 2 cents is that crossovers are not a super big problem. You just need to find out the frequency response of the drivers in the speaker system and buy or build a crossover to work within those frequency specs.

[5th element]

B&W make some nice drivers, although I am not sure how well their older drivers hold up vs their newer products. Their tweeters are nice and their FST mid range drivers are excellent.

What madmac says is incorrect however. The crossover is the most important part about a loudspeaker, as it is the number one thing that will determine how well a loudspeaker sounds. As an example, you can give the best cabinet with the best drivers to a novice and the end product will end up sounding like rubbish. However give a moderately constructed cabinet with quality, but inexpensive drivers, to a pro and the end result will be fantastic. Not to mention that you could give the moderate start to a pro and end up with rubbish too, but that's usually because the pro tries to build a loudspeaker centred around some flawed ideal and makes the wrong set of compromises along the way.

How much will the replacement set of drivers cost and would it be possible to fit in other, but similar sized, drivers? I am saying this because if you're going to need to design your own crossover then there's no reason to stick to the B&W drivers if you don't have to. For example you could go with B&Ws tweeters - a good idea because the cabinets are definitely tailored specifically for them, but then fit in a pair of SB Acoustics Satori, or SB17MFC35 drivers. Of course there are a ton of choices for other drivers, but the world is already full of excellent quality ~6.5" drivers.

You could always build your own crossover though because the service manual for the Signature 30 can be found here.

http://bwgroupsupport.com/manuals/service

And thankfully it includes the crossover schematics

[5th element]

http://s1188.photobucket.com/user/sidmini/media/image1_zps1a73ef63.jpeg.html

There's a nice image of the crossover too if you want to try and match the type of coils that the loudspeaker is using. The capacitors are all polypropylene film, which makes those easy to acquire. The small inductor is an air core and the two larger ones are obviously cored, looks like iron core if you ask me?

[madmac]

Well I'm not sure about 5th elements statement that the crossover is "THE MOST important part of a loudspeaker" !!??

I think the loudspeakers themselves, if properly crossed over to within their optimal freq range is the most important part of a loudspeaker. Second would be the cabinet size and build quality.

But........that's just my opinion!!

[5th element]

Well I'm not sure about 5th elements statement that the crossover is "THE MOST important part of a loudspeaker" !!??

I think the loudspeakers themselves, if properly crossed over to within their optimal freq range is the most important part of a loudspeaker. Second would be the cabinet size and build quality.

The above comment is clearly expecting the drive units to be chosen appropriately for the design. Of course drive unit selection is extremely important, but this was assuming that that had been done reasonably well.

But when you say this.

I think the loudspeakers themselves, if properly crossed over to within their optimal freq range is the most important part of a loudspeaker.

That is what the crossover does. Ensures that the drivers are operating properly within their usable passband.

The cabinet size is important, but there's a ton on variation that the typical set of drivers can get away with and still sound excellent, not to mention that the crossover can compensate for what compromises you've made wrt the cabinet size. Build quality is completely irrelevant providing the cabinet isn't full of holes and is built out of an appropriate material.

Still it doesn't matter how good everything about your loudspeaker is. If the crossover is sub par, the overall result will be sub par. This is the point I was trying to make. You cannot correct for a poor crossover design with other aspects of the loudspeaker.

[Hdale85]

There's a lot more to a crossover than just making it operate in a specific range as well, it can smooth out artifacts, change BSC, tons of stuff. A crossover is not a simple thing to design. Sure you can just build a simple crossover that will get the drivers playing what they are rated for, but that doesn't mean that speaker will sound good at all. If this were the case the generic crossovers from PE and what not would be used in all designs as they can be adjusted and ordered in just about any frequency ranges. But obviously they are not used at all because they are not optimal for anything really.

[madmac]

You guys are obviously correct in everything you are saying. I guess all I'm trying to say is that Mikewilky should go for it, get his drivers and experiment with various crossovers. I think the results could be very good and the whole process fun!

[5th element]

Well no experimentation is required. I posted a link to the service manual for the SS30s and that contains all the details on the crossovers.

[Mikewilky]

Cheers friends. Most useful.

[sidmini]

I have a pair of these speakers, so if you have any questions let me know. Where are you based? what colour are the cabinets?

[TomScrut]

Why not try setting up with an active crossover? That would be interesting

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