Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
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
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.
Frequency 2 ohms
4 ohms
C
8 ohms
(Hertz)
80
250 F
100
3.1 mH
200 F
130
150 F
200
280
400
600
800
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
9000
34 H
9.4 F
68 H
12000
25 H
6.6 F
51 H
1.0 mH 16 F
Frequency 2 ohms
4 ohms
C
8 ohms
(Hertz)
80
5.6 mH 700 F 11 mH
330 F 22 mH
180 F
100
150 F
130
100 F
200
280
1.7 mH
400
600
800
0.56 mH 68 F 1.0 mH 33 F
1000
1200
1800
0.25 mH 33 F
4000
6000
75 H
9000
50 H
6 F
12000
38 H
4.7 F 75 H
2.0 mH 15 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.
+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.