Dayton 3-way cross over

[kevinvanvliet]

Question:

Can you bypass the woofer section of a three way cross-over without disrupting the mid and upper
sections? It seems like all three sections are expecting an 8 ohm load so if you remove the woofer will it screw up the mid and high sections. It seems like a parallel circuit but are they truly independent of each other?

[Dirk]

> Question:

> Can you bypass the woofer section of a three
> way cross-over without disrupting the mid
> and upper
> sections? It seems like all three sections
> are expecting an 8 ohm load so if you remove
> the woofer will it screw up the mid and high
> sections. It seems like a parallel circuit
> but are they truly independent of each
> other?

They are truely independant. The only reason they specify 8-ohm loads is that if your drivers are not 8-ohm, the crossover points will change. Drastically.

Parallel crossovers increase the impedance outside of the driver's passband. Consider each section of the crossover to be a "filter". The driver+lowpass is presenting an 8-ohm load at 300hz and, say, a 120-ohm load at 3000hz. If you also have a driver+highpass connected, it might be 8-ohm at 3khz and 120-ohm at 300hz. So at 3khz, the amplifier is seeing 8-ohms paralleled with 120-ohms. The lowpass will only get the slightest trickle of energy compared to the tweeter (because its impedance is so much higher and electricity generally takes the path of least resistance).

If you disconnect the woofer, the midrange will see a *slight* increase in low frequency energy. VERY slight (because it's no longer paralleled with the 8-ohm load). Hardly enough to measure, let alone hear or cause damage.

And all of my numbers above are completely made up. Still valid in the basic theory, tho.