Hi all, I'm planning on building a system with active crossovers, three-driver satellites with each driver amped separately and a central mono sub woofer. I'm currently playing with the design phase. I'm considering both dsp-based and analogue solutions, with analogue currently winning due to the lack of good quality dsp solutions and a lack of time to build one myself (would have to do a lot of learning first!). I'm currently considering the following. This is one mono channel of course and would be doubled up, however the sub woofer amplifier will be used in mono mode and the 2.1 crossover outputs a mono sub signal from combined L&R channels under 120hz. Any thoughts?
The benefit of this design is I can use all pre-build modules and not have to solder much myself. I looked at the option to use the Elliot Projects 4 way crossover, however I'm a long way from Australia and this would need some modification to firstly input an unbalanced input and secondly to merge the two sub outputs into a mono output. By using two 3-way xovers with the lows fed into a 2.1 xover I've got at least one unnecessary buffer but I don't think this is too great a compromise. The units I've found to do this appear to be very good quality, and I'd consider swapping out the opamps for the best I can source. Xover frequencies will be 120hz, 500hz, 3000hz or as close as I can get them based on the drivers I've selected.
My plan is to use a large aluminium chassis and use perforated aluminium fences to section it off and shield modules from one another, running shielded cables between them but not connected to the fences to avoid ground loops. The digital boards will run off a single power supply with voltage regulators as necessary and all digital boards and power supply will be box-shielded individually to avoid digital noise, with power cables also shielded between them. The input selector will, if I can find one with shielding I like, also switch power input to each digital board only when needed to minimise noise. The ICEpower amps all have their own power supplies integrated. I'll use a single earth rail for all earths, and connect earth shields only at the sending module for each connection.
I could then later play with adding DSP inbetween the selector and volume control to add eq to give a really flat (room specific) response, possibly adding eq hard controls and a switched compressed/bass-boosted low-volume listening mode. My inclination is to avoid DSP if possible however as I don't really want to add additional ADC/DAC stages, though if I can find something with SPDIF in plus I2S in/out I can use digital input and high quality ADC/DAC modules.
Using this solution I think I can build a four-way independently amplified system for around £1600.
Grateful for any suggestions or comments!
The benefit of this design is I can use all pre-build modules and not have to solder much myself. I looked at the option to use the Elliot Projects 4 way crossover, however I'm a long way from Australia and this would need some modification to firstly input an unbalanced input and secondly to merge the two sub outputs into a mono output. By using two 3-way xovers with the lows fed into a 2.1 xover I've got at least one unnecessary buffer but I don't think this is too great a compromise. The units I've found to do this appear to be very good quality, and I'd consider swapping out the opamps for the best I can source. Xover frequencies will be 120hz, 500hz, 3000hz or as close as I can get them based on the drivers I've selected.
My plan is to use a large aluminium chassis and use perforated aluminium fences to section it off and shield modules from one another, running shielded cables between them but not connected to the fences to avoid ground loops. The digital boards will run off a single power supply with voltage regulators as necessary and all digital boards and power supply will be box-shielded individually to avoid digital noise, with power cables also shielded between them. The input selector will, if I can find one with shielding I like, also switch power input to each digital board only when needed to minimise noise. The ICEpower amps all have their own power supplies integrated. I'll use a single earth rail for all earths, and connect earth shields only at the sending module for each connection.
I could then later play with adding DSP inbetween the selector and volume control to add eq to give a really flat (room specific) response, possibly adding eq hard controls and a switched compressed/bass-boosted low-volume listening mode. My inclination is to avoid DSP if possible however as I don't really want to add additional ADC/DAC stages, though if I can find something with SPDIF in plus I2S in/out I can use digital input and high quality ADC/DAC modules.
Using this solution I think I can build a four-way independently amplified system for around £1600.
Grateful for any suggestions or comments!
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