Would someone be so kind as to give a brief description of what we're talking about here. I get a bit confused with a speaker that costs $300 and the seller has another auction with the crossovers at $100. What do they do and are they required? Love Sput Soon I will talk the talk and walk the walk. Or in this case, I will hear the hear and walk the walk. I know I say this often but I truly appreciate the knowledge and help I get from the members here. I'm having fun with music. I'm expanding my horizons.
A crossover is simply a filter. In order to protect the tweeters or midrange drivers in a loudspeaker system from being burned by low frequency information, we use a crossover. The crossover rolls off low frequency information at a certain rate (slope) measured in decibels per octave. Running a woofer above its intended frequency range is not really harmful. It will begin to beam at certain frequencies, but it will not burn. However, if we put low frequency information into a tweeter, it simply can not handle it. The ultimate crossover would be no crossover, letting the drivers all roll off naturally. Unfortunately, we have yet to come up with a tweeter that can handle the low frequency information without burning. Until then, we must use crossovers.
