Electronic Crossover find, treasure or trash? Crown FFX-2

Steve Smiley

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I was visiting my favorite Michigan State University surplus store today. Always a great place for unique finds. Lately there has been a lot of pro sound gear available, probably upgrading sound systems in athletics facilities. I saw these Crown FFX-2 electronic crossovers.
Crown elc xover1.JPG

Would these be good for home experimentation/use as far as fidelity is concerned?
Crown xover 2.JPGCrown xover 3.JPG

As I've been getting into this hobby more and more I wonder if something like this would be useful. I think one drawback might be that. at least the early indications suggest, it looks like it can only set one crossover point that serves as both the low-pass and the high pass. Maybe that comes in most handy when doing a sub and satellite type system. Maybe not so useful when trying to design a two-way system that ideally would allow different x-over points for the high pass and the low pass. This has probably caught my eye because I've been looking more and more at pro-driver and waveguide horn set-ups. Not that I can afford any real investment in that yet but I'm curious. Any opinions?

Also, anybody need an almost-ready made subwoofer enclosure, probably about 6 cubic foot?
Psuedo sub cab.JPG
See I find stuff like this all the time and it makes me get crazy ideas in my head for projects...
 
The lone crossover freq is ok, I'd be more worried about only having terminal strips for connections. They could be useful in some homebrew speakers possibly, but they really are meant for pro audio speakers that need to be bi-amped, like some older JBL models.
 
Anything with Crown on it is going to be useful and well made. You have a lot of choices in frequency for a hardwired analog device but for speaker building perhaps not enough.

I would get one of them for future insurance, you never know when you might need a bass blocker or something.
 
I'd be more worried about only having terminal strips for connections.

There is a reason pro gear often use terminal strips. They are light years more reliable than banana plugs or those stupid spring connectors. When used properly with good crimp connectors they will not fail. Or become intermittent or ever cause problems.
When I see a piece of gear with terminal strips like my Mac tube amps or my vintage HeathKit AS101's (Altec speakers) I know it was built for the long haul.
I have opened connection boxes on machine tools and have had water based coolant pour out. Nothing but rust and corrosion on all the terminals. But all the signals are still getting through to the control! Removing a cable to replace it and finding shiny metal under the screw head and on the connector lug is still to be expected as it's a gas tight seal.
Anyway if those crossovers are cheap, and I expect they are I would grab at least one. As Gazdatronik said, if made by Crown, they are well made and most likely usable.

BillWojo
 
There is a reason pro gear often use terminal strips. They are light years more reliable than banana plugs or those stupid spring connectors. When used properly with good crimp connectors they will not fail. Or become intermittent or ever cause problems.
When I see a piece of gear with terminal strips like my Mac tube amps or my vintage HeathKit AS101's (Altec speakers) I know it was built for the long haul.
I have opened connection boxes on machine tools and have had water based coolant pour out. Nothing but rust and corrosion on all the terminals. But all the signals are still getting through to the control! Removing a cable to replace it and finding shiny metal under the screw head and on the connector lug is still to be expected as it's a gas tight seal.
Anyway if those crossovers are cheap, and I expect they are I would grab at least one. As Gazdatronik said, if made by Crown, they are well made and most likely usable.

BillWojo
They're balanced line level I/O....not speaker outputs which would use bananas or springs you mentioned. I ran live sound for 5 years, unless I knew I was installing the unit forever in which case terminal strips would be perfect, I would want xlr's or quarter inch jacks instead.
And these are meant to be installed permanently, but I was just saying to the OP terminals strips limit flexibility.
 
Thanks everybody, and thank you ivandezande. After your initial reply you got me thinking, and then it hit me - these are line level inputs and outputs, not speaker level. It makes sense for me to grab one, thank you...we'll see, funds are tight right now.

Katalyst, thx for the link to the manual. Actually, this looks like a great opportunity for learning about x-over design, etc.

You can see on one of the pictures, they are selling them for $40 a piece, and there was at least seven of them when I was there.

I'd be happy to pick one up for somebody that isn't local, just let me know. They also have a ton of QSC 1200 power amps, and I mean a ton, they are so heavy!

Thank you for all the responses. I thought as the OP I would get notification of responses, but I didn't. Did I do something wrong when I posted the thread?

Regards,

Steve
 
Thanks everybody, and thank you ivandezande. After your initial reply you got me thinking, and then it hit me - these are line level inputs and outputs, not speaker level. It makes sense for me to grab one, thank you...we'll see, funds are tight right now.

Katalyst, thx for the link to the manual. Actually, this looks like a great opportunity for learning about x-over design, etc.

You can see on one of the pictures, they are selling them for $40 a piece, and there was at least seven of them when I was there.

I'd be happy to pick one up for somebody that isn't local, just let me know. They also have a ton of QSC 1200 power amps, and I mean a ton, they are so heavy!

Thank you for all the responses. I thought as the OP I would get notification of responses, but I didn't. Did I do something wrong when I posted the thread?

Regards,

Steve
If the QSC's are a good price you should snag one or two!
No, it's kinda silly, you have to subscribe to your own thread to get notifications. If someone quotes you, you should get one regardless.
 
If the QSC's are a good price you should snag one or two!
No, it's kinda silly, you have to subscribe to your own thread to get notifications. If someone quotes you, you should get one regardless.
Thank you ivandezande, for the comment on the QSC 1200. They are listed at $50 a piece, if I recall correctly. Most were set up as two channel, or so it appeared. Some seemed to be just one channel. I say this because they set up was very unique to me (remember, the terminal strips on the Crown confused me.) Big transformers stuck out the back with wires going to what seemed to be very regular binding posts. Two transformers = two channels, one transformer=one channel was my thought process. I didn't get a picture of these but what confused me was the way the wires were coming off the transformers to the binding posts. I should have taken a picture but I don't remember either binding post labeled as channel 1/channel 2. I wrote it off as something not for me as it seemed too unconventional. You've changed my perspective. It sounds like I should reconsider these?

QSC 1200.jpg

And thank you for quoting me. I got the email notification.

Steve
 
They're balanced line level I/O....not speaker outputs which would use bananas or springs you mentioned. I ran live sound for 5 years, unless I knew I was installing the unit forever in which case terminal strips would be perfect, I would want xlr's or quarter inch jacks instead.
And these are meant to be installed permanently, but I was just saying to the OP terminals strips limit flexibility.
When i was doing live sound and assembling systems for others, terminal strips were always preferred as most gear was installed in shock mount racks and hard wired to custom patch panels on the rear of the racks.
 
Thank you ivandezande, for the comment on the QSC 1200. They are listed at $50 a piece, if I recall correctly. Most were set up as two channel, or so it appeared. Some seemed to be just one channel. I say this because they set up was very unique to me (remember, the terminal strips on the Crown confused me.) Big transformers stuck out the back with wires going to what seemed to be very regular binding posts. Two transformers = two channels, one transformer=one channel was my thought process. I didn't get a picture of these but what confused me was the way the wires were coming off the transformers to the binding posts. I should have taken a picture but I don't remember either binding post labeled as channel 1/channel 2. I wrote it off as something not for me as it seemed too unconventional. You've changed my perspective. It sounds like I should reconsider these?

View attachment 1423987

And thank you for quoting me. I got the email notification.

Steve
Ahhh yes, they're set up for a 70V constant voltage system, some being set to mono/bridged mode I'm sure. You should be able to just unhook the transformers and be good to go. If you're ok with some fan noise and could use the power, $50 is a steal.
 
When i was doing live sound and assembling systems for others, terminal strips were always preferred as most gear was installed in shock mount racks and hard wired to custom patch panels on the rear of the racks.
Like I said, I agree that terminal strips are ideal and will be reliable forever if you're setting it up and leaving it, not trying new equipment or needing to tweak the setup often.
 
Ahhh yes, they're set up for a 70V constant voltage system, some being set to mono/bridged mode I'm sure. You should be able to just unhook the transformers and be good to go. If you're ok with some fan noise and could use the power, $50 is a steal.
Thank you ivandezande, I will head back there tomorrow and see what's left. There were a bunch of them there last week.

Who couldn't use more power?!

Regards,

Steve
 
At $40, I'd love to have one. With, of course, compensation to you for the trouble, shipping, et al. It's up to you. Not a big deal.
 
There's a setting in your profile to automatically subscribe to threads you post in. I never have to subscribe to a thread unless I want to follow it but haven't posted in it.
 
At $40, I'd love to have one. With, of course, compensation to you for the trouble, shipping, et al. It's up to you. Not a big deal.

Artie, I'd be happy to pick one up for you, and thanks for the consideration. I'll PM you to get details squared away. I'll head to the surplus store tomorrow to check availability.

Anybody else?

Steve
 
Tough to compete at $40 apiece.

I personally, would find the terminals annoying but that's just me.

If you look at some online auctions, you might find a used Electrovoice DX-38 for a nice price (they've been discontinued)

They are 2-in, 4-out so if you want stereo 3-way you have to do some tweaking somewhere or, buy a second one for the other speaker.

The EV unit is a DSP based unit so you can also add some delay if you need/want. (I'm not familar with the Crown so can't comment)
 
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