Electronic Crossover

[Coytee]

From what I have read, a gentler slope makes a more seamless transition from bass to treble, or less of an on/off switch for the speakers?

I'm not a crossover expert so feel free to discount my comments. (I have however, been using an active crossover for 7-8 years)

My understanding is the steeper the slope on the crossover the less overlap of signal you have. The less overlap between drivers, the more you minimize some (destructive) interference between them.

A number of years ago, Klipsch had an open house at their factory. One thing I took part of was a listening experiment. Mind you this was not an official 'A/B/X' type experiment... but, it was done in their lab's listening room under quasi-controlled conditions.

One thing we A/B'ed was a 12 verses 24 (or was it 48?) db slope crossover. What I personally took away from that real world hearing experience was the steeper the crossover, the more it sounded like "a veil was lifted" from the music.

In fairness, I don't think that I personally could have walked into the room and pointed out with any consistency which slope was being played. It was only when I heard them A/B that I could hear the difference. Both sounded good....it's just that the steeper one had that darn veil lifted.

 

[telemike]

Behringer is "ok" but not high quality, it's a bottom feeder in the pro audio world

i would go with Ashly, Rane or dbx for active crossovers.

http://www.sesystems.com/Active-Crossovers-C459.aspx

For digital crossovers, the dbx driveracks are good.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Behringer is not highly regarded in terms of quality construction and maybe I got lucky with the CX2310 although it's reviews are pretty good.

The more expensive CX3400 I had and returned didn't sit level and had it's own sonic signature vs the cheaper CX2310 which seems transparent to my ears.

I like being able to adjust and tweak the XO, input and output levels that the CX2310 allows. In addition to high/low management it has a separate subwoofer XO and gain control. I use all Monprice XLR to RCA cables ( I was shocked at their quality vs low price ) and experience no hum or interference.

I am very interested in what I read about the Drive Rack.

 

[telemike]

With something like this http://www.fullcompass.com/product/359232.html

you take digital outs from your digital console into this.

Even more comples installs are fully digital until final amp output.

Digital mixer -> DSP Processor -> Digital inputs on power amp - > speakers.