Passive crossover/network patch bay.

I used to have a science kit a long while back that was basically a patch bay of basic components. It was fun, and I got electrocuted many times.

I was inspired by that to make a similar device that did passive networks as I wasn't happy with the ones in my hifi speakers at the time. No pics, sorry, but you kind of get the idea.

A few days ago, I saw this on the internets.
www.jsxaudio.com/News3.htm

Is anybody interested in a similar project? I don't use passive cabs much any more so it's not going to reappear in my workshop soon, but it's a good idea I thought for those constantly building passive networks and having to prototype them.

I wouldn't go for anything that complicated but yes, I am considering making up a reconfigurable passive crossover board with switchable inductors and capacitors.

Deadbeat, What a great find. I did some work many years ago with David at Volt. His method was basically a peg board for components.
I can see why someone would want to build a unit like that, but I'm not convinced it would give you the optimum result. I did notice that they are involved in cinema systems. So I wouldn't expect the purest sound.

Hmm, yes.
The designer Antone, it turns out, actually runs a PA company in the bay area (Servodrive Bass Tech 7s and the like).

Peg board sounds good, when I had to redo LS3/5A crossovers quick last week, I used a bit of protoboard; it also allows you to use whatever components you like I guess without a massive panel.

Here's one I prepared earlier. 'been seen before, but here it is again.

Anyone know anything about working out ideal crossover frequencies and how much power you need for each bit?
I'm running a 3 way system at the moment with active crossover.
1600 for bass 1200 mid and 400 for tops (I'm gonna up that to 800 soon), that's each side not total.
My problem is that the treble horn is only rated at 50 watts or for use with a 400w bass cone so I'm sure I should have more but I'm not sure how much or how to wire it the right way. It's taking everything above 3.5khz so surely needs a bit more wattage?
I can give you more details of what cones they are and stuff but is there anywhere to find out this stuff?
It all seems to be bass cab designs everywhere and nothing about the electronics!

Somewhere around on the net there are some graphs which show the relative power required for different frequencies assuming average music.

A 50W HF driver for doing 3.5kHz upwards sounds more than enough. It's not unusual for commercial mid-top cabinets to have a 400W mid-bass driver with a compression driver rated at only 20-30W, crossing over at 2-3kHz. One of the things to bear in mind is that for high frequencies the peak to average power ratio is much higher than for bass or midrange. So although you might only have a HF driver rated at 50W, you need to be using an amp rated at more than that to handle the peaks, which might be 200W or more. This is more noticable with live music than recorded. The other thing to factor in is driver efficiency. As a very rough example your bass cabinets might have an efficiency of 95dB/1W/1m, your midrange 100dB and your HF 105dB. This means that before you even factor in the power distribution of music, you need 10 times more power for your bass than for your high frequencies.

If you can supply more information about your actual system, drivers, cabinets etc, maybe in a new thread, I'm sure between us here we can help you get your setup right.

It's Aaron here again I've joined now, I'll start a new thread with some details and hopefully load up some photos at some point.
Might take me a while to track down all the driver specs and stuff but I think it's probably worth doing, I'm sure I can squeeze more sound out of my system than I am now!