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Custom Crossovers

The easiest (and cheapest) crossovers to build are 6 dB/Oct, made of either an inductor or
capacitor inline. While this might work as a simple fix, or at a crossover frequency that is not
close to the speaker frequency response limits, it is not the best solution. For higher slope
crossovers, complexity and cost add up quickly.
Parts of a Crossover Network

1. Filter: This is the real crossover. It blocks undesired frequencies by increasing


impedance seen by the amplifier. Made up of capacitors and inductors. There are
three types: High pass, low pass and bandpass (high pass and low pass filters used
together).
2. L-pad: Attenuates the output of a speaker, while presenting a constant load to the
amplifier. L-pads are made using two resistors that dissipate power that would go to
the speaker. It is used to match volume levels of different speakers.
3. Impedance Stabilization: Commonly known as a Zobel circuit. It uses a capacitor
and resistor to compensate for the inductive effects of the speaker coil, making the
speaker play in a more linear fashion. This also makes the amplifier see a more stable
load (speaker impedance varies with frequency). Zobel networks are used on
speakers that play lower frequencies, not tweeters.

How to Pick Crossover Components


Capacitors:
If you can afford them, try to get Mylar or polypropylene capacitors, especially when they
are used in series (high-pass filters). For low pass filters, or high capacitance values nonpolarized electrolytic capacitors have to be used.
Inductors:
Most critical in low-pass filters, when they are placed in series. For audiophile quality sound,
CFAC (Copper-foil-air-core) inductors are probably the best choice, but at a high cost. Most
cost/quality effective option is air core inductors for high-end crossovers. At larger
inductance values, the series DC resistance in air core inductors becomes a problem. This is
when iron core inductors would have to be used.
Resistors:
High-power resistors are bulky. Always pick a higher wattage than you would need on
average conditions. Get non-inductive resistors for best performance.
L-pads:
There are commercially available variable L-pads, or a set can be fabricated using two highpower resistors. If you buy an L-pad, it is very important that you get the right value. I.e: For
4-ohm speakers, get a 4-ohm L-pad. A dual 8-ohm L-pad could be wired in parallel to
operate with a single 4-ohm speaker, at twice power handling.
Circuit Boards:
Chose double sided copper boards. The thicker the copper coating and insulating material,
the better. You can either etch the board with chemicals, or with a Dremel tool.
Crossover Design Tips
Capacitor voltage/power ratings: Typically, 50-volt capacitors can handle up to 70 RMS
Watts, 100v can handle 200w and 250v up to 300w. Inductors gauge/power ratings: In
inductors, the gauge of the wire used determines power handling. Common values are: 20
gauge = 180 watts, 18ga = 250 to 300w, 16ga = 500w and 14ga = 800w. Series/parallel
inductors add up in the same way as resistors, capacitors add up in the opposite way
(capacitance increases in parallel, decreases in series). For formulas, look at the
speaker/sub wiring page. In crossovers with large non-polarized electrolytic caps, sound
quality can be improved by bypassing them with a small value (0.01 to 0.47 F) film or foil
polypropylene capacitor in parallel (tip courtesy of Parts Express).

Crossover Initial Design


Plan very carefully which frequency you are using for the crossover. Once you buy the
components, you cant change it. Consider cars response, speakers response, slope,
acoustical effects, etc. Whether it is plugging numbers into formulas, or having a computer
figure out the values, you will come up with a set of inductor and capacitor values. Most
likely, the values you have are not commercially available. You will have to play around with
frequencies and commercially available values to compromise on a good design without
much deviation from theoretical data. Once you have your values figured out, you need to
calculate power. Always over-engineer crossovers and pick your inductors wire gauge and
capacitors max. voltage accordingly. Any weak component will cause problems in the
overall crossover design. If you have the resources, try to run a simulation of the crossovers
interaction with the speakers parameters, see what comes up and how shifts in voltage and
current will affect the response.
Building The PCB
Take your time figuring out the best component layout possible. A good layout takes up a
least amount of space while avoiding traces to cross each other. Two sided-copper boards
are easier to work with. If there is no way to avoid traces crossing, both sides can be used to
keep from soldering jumper wires. Once you have a tentative layout and have analyzed that
the layout matches the schematics, draw each components outline with a pencil. Mark
where component leads and input/output wires need to be drilled in the board. Drill all
component holes and test fit all the components without soldering. Etch or grind away parts
of the board to create traces. If there is a possibility of a component shorting out traces,
etch an outline around the component to avoid problems. It is good practice to glue or wire
tie (or both) components to the board. This way, rattles and vibrations that can stress and
break wire leads are minimized. Take one component at a time, glue it to the board (hot
melt glue works great), and then solder the leads. Cut excess wire. Repeat the process for all
the components and wires.

Testing
First, visually trace all the connections and junctions on both sides of the board. Make sure
there are no short/open circuits. The second step is to test the board. Check the board to
make sure there are no DC short circuits. Connect the board to an amplifier and speaker.
You can either use an RTA or test tones to determine the boards frequency response. Use a
volume level a bit higher than the background noise in your test environment. If the
frequency response (crossover point and slope) do not match theoretical data, you might
have a short or loose connection. Re-inspect your circuit.

Quick Parts Reference

Guidelines For 6-dB/Octave Crossovers

Frequency 2 ohms

4 ohms
C

8 ohms

(Hertz)

80

4.1 mH 1000 F 8.2 mH 500 F 16 mH

250 F

100

3.1 mH

800 F 6.2 mH 400 F 12 mH

200 F

130

2.4 mH 600 F 4.7 mH 300 F 10 mH

150 F

200

1.6 mH 400 F 3.3 mH

280

1.2 mH 300 F 2.4 mH 150 F 4.7 mH 75 F

400

0.8 mH 200 F 1.6 mH 100 F 3.3 mH

600

0.5 mH 136 F 1.0 mH 68 F 2.0 mH 33 F

800

0.41 mH 100 F 0.82 mH 50 F 1.6 mH 25 F

1000

0.31 mH 78 F

0.62 mH 39 F 1.2 mH 20 F

1200

0.25 mH 66 F

0.51 mH 33 F

1800

0.16 mH 44 F

0.33 mH 22 F 0.68 mH 10 F

4000

0.08 mH 20 F

0.16 mH 10 F 0.33 mH 5 F

6000

51 H

14 F

0.10 mH 6.8 F 0.20 mH 3.3 F

9000

34 H

9.4 F

68 H

4.7 F 0.15 mH 2.2 F

12000

25 H

6.6 F

51 H

3.3 F 100 H 1.6 F

200 F 6.8 mH 100 F


50 F

1.0 mH 16 F

Guidelines For 12-dB/Octave Crossovers

Frequency 2 ohms

4 ohms
C

8 ohms

(Hertz)

80

5.6 mH 700 F 11 mH

330 F 22 mH

180 F

100

4.5 mH 550 F 9.1 mH 270 F 18 mH

150 F

130

3.5 mH 470 F 6.8 mH 200 F 15 mH

100 F

200

2.3 mH 330 F 4.7 mH 150 F 9.1 mH 75 F

280

1.7 mH

400

1.1 mH 140 F 2.2 mH 68 F 4.7 mH 33 F

600

0.75 mH 100 F 1.5 mH 47 F 3.0 mH 27 F

800

0.56 mH 68 F 1.0 mH 33 F

1000

0.45 mH 55 F 0.91 mH 27 F 1.8 mH 13 F

1200

0.38 mH 47 F 0.75 mH 22 F 1.5 mH 11 F

1800

0.25 mH 33 F

4000

0.11 mH 14 F 0.22 mH 6.8 F 0.47 mH 3.3 F

6000

75 H

10 F 0.15 mH 4.7 F 0.33 mH 2.2 F

9000

50 H

6 F

12000

38 H

4.7 F 75 H

220 F 3.6 mH 100 F 6.8 mH 50 F

2.0 mH 15 F

0.50 mH 15 F 1.0 mH 6.8 F

0.10 mH 3.3 F 0.20 mH 1.5 F


2.2 F 0.15 mH 1.0 F

Equalizers
Mounting location
Whether an equalizer is parametric or graphic, it can be mounted in the front of the car or
trunk. EQs are mounted in the front for easy adjustment of different types of music or
songs, and are meant to be used by the owner. These are usually octave or 1/2 octave
graphic equalizers or four-band parametric equalizers. Typical locations are close to the
radio or hidden in the glove box or console. More complicated equalizers are usually
adjusted once and stashed away in the trunk or other remote location. This is usually done
by a professional, who adjusts the EQ according to the users taste. If you dont know what
you are doing you should not play with a complicated equalizer set up by a pro. Most often
than not you will end up messing up the system. Typical mounting locations are in the
trunk, back seats, or hidden inside panels. The most important aspects of mounting
locations for equalizers is noise sources and accessibility. Since equalizers work with lowlevel signals, they are prone to picking up radiated noise. RCA wires should be routed away
from cars computer and power wires (especially away from power wires going to
amplifiers). They also need to be accessible for adjustments.
Connections
Equalizers are very easy to connect: Since active equalizers draw very little current, power
and ground wires do not have to be as massive as amplifiers wires. EQs also need a turn-on
wire from the head unit. RCA inputs and outputs should be carefully routed to avoid noise.
The main concern is not the low current power wires from the equalizer, but power wires
from the amplifiers.
Adjusting
As soon as an equalizer is installed, it should be adjusted to 0 or flat response (no boost,
no attenuation). An equalizer is the LAST component in a system to get adjusted. See the
tweaking section for more information in setting an equalizer.

Tweaking
You have finally hooked up all your sources, processors, amplifiers and speakers. Now it is
time for one of the most critical aspects of the installation: Fine tuning your system
(tweaking). Tweaking is a very long process, especially if you have many channels of
amplification. Take your time to get everything set for optimum performance. Professionals
take days, even weeks to set a system up.
1. Get rid of noise
Make sure your system is 100 percent noise free (see the alternator noise section for more
help).
2. Check speaker polarity
To make sure all your speakers are in phase, unhook the speaker you want to test at the
amp (both wires preferably). Using a 1.5 volt battery (any size), touch the positive terminal
of the battery to the positive wire going to the speaker, then do the same for the negative
wire. Have a friend look at the speaker. If the speaker pops out, the polarity is correct. If the
speaker pops in, the speaker is hooked up backwards (out of phase). To fix this, simply
reverse the wires when hooking the speaker back to the amplifier. A word of caution here:
DO NOT hold the battery power to the speaker for more than 1 second, all you want to do is
to see if it pops in or out. You will damage the speaker if you hold constant power to it. Do
not use a higher voltage. Also, do not try this test on tweeters, you could fry the voice coils.
If there are crossovers with capacitors along the line, this test will not work (capacitors block
DC voltage). Bypass the caps momentarily.
A much more elegant and quicker way to do this is by using a commercially available
polarity checker, which uses a test CD. All you have to do is pop the CD in the head unit and
hold the polarity tester in front of each speaker. The advantage here is that you can test for
absolute polarity of the system on all the speakers, including tweeters. Polarity checkers are
available from various companies such as Monster Cable. Retail for the Monster Cable
polarity checker is about $120.
Sometimes, when speakers are not mounted close to each other (i.e., mids on the doors and
tweeters up in the dash), reversing the polarity on tweeters or mids makes the system
sound better because it makes up for phase differences due to distance. Try different
combinations and see what sounds better.
3. Get a clean signal
The third step is to set all your sources and processors flat. Turn the loudness off. Set the
bass, mid and treble controls on the radio to 0. Set all EQ bands to 0dB. Defeat all bass and
treble boosts, etc. Set the gains on all the amps and processors to the middle. Balance and
fader should also be in the middle. By now your stereo should sound pretty good. If not,
check your installation. EQs are not designed to compensate for installation flaws.
4. Setting Gains for max. power and min. distortion
Start with a high level signal at the first components of the chain. This will reduce noise and
give you more headroom. Try to start with a head unit that has a high voltage signal. With
everything still flat, set the amplifier and processor gains. Pegging the gains on amplifiers or
any other processor all the way up will most likely introduce clipping (distortion) in your
system, which damages speakers.

The best and quickest way to set


gains is to use an oscilloscope. By using a scope, you will be able to get the maximum
possible power without distortion. Make a probe adapter using a male and female RCA ends
(see figure). Splice a wire in the positive (center) and one in the negative (outside). Insulate
exposed wires independently. To probe a channel, simply unplug the RCA from the
component, plug the RCA to one end of the probe and plug the probe to the component.
Hook up the scopes probe to the two wires you spliced.

Once you probe is hooked up, you need to pop a test CD


with different test tones such as the Autosound 2000 amplifier setting CD. Make sure the
tones are at 0dB reference. Use a frequency in the middle range of the crossover. For
example if there is a crossover before the amplifier that lets frequencies from 100 to 3000
Hz pass, use a 1000 Hz test signal. For subs try about 40Hz.
Start with the head unit. Raise the volume up until you see clipping. Set the head unit at the
maximum volume before clipping and leave it there for the remaining of the gain setting
procedure (if it is too loud, turn the gains on the amp(s) down or unhook the speakers).
Try the output of the next component down the line. Again, turn the gain control up until
you get clipping. Keep setting controls until you reach the amplifier outputs. Be careful not
to fry the voice coils on the speakers. A sine wave requires a lot of effort for a speaker to
reproduce. Even tough the speakers impedance will affect amplifier output, it is wise to
sometimes unhook the speakers for testing. If you change a component, it would be wise to
readjust the systems gains.
If you dont have access to an oscilloscope, you can do the adjustments using test tones and
your ears. First, listen to a test CD with tones containing distortion, so that you know what it
sounds like. Then follow the same procedure as mentioned above, but use your ears to
check for clipping: Start turning the gain up. When you hear distortion (clipping), turn the
gain back down a little bit.
5. Adjusting processors to smooth out frequency response
First, tweak only using gains and crossover settings, do not be tempted to adjust the
equalization yet. Since you already set your gains for maximum output, if you have to readjust, turn gains down on the components that are loudest, do not boost gains up.
If you have access to an RTA, your time spent tweaking will be greatly reduced. Simply
adjust the crossovers and gains (do not exceed settings from step 4) trying to make the
response as flat as possible.
The second best option is to get a SPL meter (Radio Shack sells them for less than $60) and
a test CD producing tones (ideally every 1/3 octave). By recording the sound pressure level
readings from the meter at each frequency, you can draw a response curve the same way an
RTA does. Since SPL meters dont have an unwheighed frequency response, set your meter
to slow C weighing and add the following values to each measurement: +7dB @ 20Hz,

+4dB @ 25Hz, +3dB @ 31.5Hz, +2dB @ 40Hz, +1.25dB @ 50Hz, +1dB @ 63Hz, +0.5dB @
80Hz, +0.25dB @ 100Hz on the lower end, and +0.25dB @ 2.5kHz, +0.5dB @ 3.15kHz, +1dB
@ 4kHz, +1.25dB @ 5kHZ, +2dB @ 6.3kHZ, +3dB @ 8kHz, +4dB @ 10kHz, +7dB @
12.5kHZ, +9dB @ 16kHz and 11.5dB @ 20kHz on the upper end. If you cant get either the
RTA or the SPL meter, you will just have to rely on your ears. Keep tweaking and measuring
until you are happy with the results.
A perfect flat curve measured with an RTA or SPL meter will not necessarily sound great.
Next step is to use your ears to fine tune the system. Choose different types of music. Even
if you dont like to listen to jazz or classical music, they are a great resource to set systems.
Remember that at this point you are NOT listening to music, you are listening to your
system.
Music should appear to come from the front of the vehicle. The singers/band should seem
to be up and in front of you. Classical music is very good for this because of all the different
instruments that are used, covering pretty much the entire audio spectrum. The system
should be completely transparent. The whole purpose of the system is to give you the
illusion that the music is coming from a live band, not from a bunch of paper and plastic
cones moving back and forth.
6. Equalization
Once you are very happy with your results (this could take days, even weeks), and firmly
believe that you cant make the system sound any better without using equalization, then
you can start EQ-ing. A bit of advise: Mark all your settings before you go any further (you
will be very sorry if you dont have a reference in case you mess up). Try not to boost
frequencies up on the EQ, only lower down the peaks. If you have holes in your system,
then you might have a problem with speaker location, or crossover points/slopes.
Use either the RTA, SPL meter or any other medium you have available, to adjust the
equalization and other processors (i.e bass/treble enhancement, etc). Grab your CDs and hit
the road again. Take into consideration that your system will sound different sitting in a
garage and on the road, due to road noise (this is were you wish you would have added
damping material to your car and taken care of all the rattles). Have knowledgeable people
listen to your system and give you their opinion. Most of the time they will catch something
you missed. Another good idea is to have a reference system (a high-end home or car
audio system from a friend or relative) to compare your car stereo to. Once again, the
process will last many hours until you are satisfied with the results.
Finally, recheck the output of the amplifier(s) at different frequencies (preferably all the
frequencies affected by the equalizer) using an oscilloscope. This is to ensure that you did
not introduce any clipping when boosting frequencies with the EQ. If there is clipping, turn
the volume down on the radio until you see no clipping. That is the maximum volume
setting of your system and you should never exceed it.

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