Online crossover design software

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It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. XSim free crossover designer. Thread starter bwaslo Start date pm. I'm announcing the public release of XSim, a "free-form" Windows-based passive crossover design and simulation program intended to be as intuitive and non-restrictive as possible.

Any speaker builder with at least a basic understanding of what resistors, capacitors, and inductors do, and with decent response measurements FRD and ZMA of their drivers in their boxes, should be able to get useful results right away.

Some built-in multi-part "Circuit Blocks" also provide for basic pre-configured circuits to be tuned per their overall parameters Q, corner frequency, attenuation, etc. There are "Example" files inlcuded in the XSim download currently less than 1. XSim allows you to see simultaneous multiple graphs of your choice, including impedances, voltages, power consumptions, group delay, and frequency, impulse, step, and square wave responses. The circuit network is re-solved automatically with every change you make.

The "free-form" aspect of XSim is that crossover designs are unrestricted, no particular circuit structure need be used. Essentially any R-L-C passive network you can think of can be easily entered using graphical schematic entry, with results calculated as you design.

A common "ground" node is provided, but its use isn't required. Last edited: pm. More options. Will try it out, thanks! Scottmoose Member. Magic, I'll give it a shot. Many thanks. JMB Member. Features vary from free-form creation modes to automated calculations, so hang on to see which suits you best. Passive Crossover Designer.

Frequently Asked Questions How do you set a crossover frequency? You need to set the frequency 10 Hz higher than the low end of your speaker tolerance. What does an inductor do in a crossover? What is the best crossover design software? We recommend XSim as the crossover design software. This article covers: Topics: audio software design software. Was this page helpful? Thank you! When designing for three speakers, you'll need to set a low and a high crossover frequency using the same method.

Note that you can only choose a spread between these frequencies of either 3 or 3. You will now see the capacitor and inductor component values you will need for your passive crossover design in the results section. You also get a circuit diagram , so you know how to wire up the components to build your crossover filter. Now let's go through how to calculate a relatively simple 2-way, 2nd order crossover with Butterworth characteristics, consisting of two capacitors and two inductors.

The equations for the four components are as follows:. The equations for other orders and filter types are similar to those above, but with varying constants. You can find all of these in the book by Vance Dickason called The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook , 7th edition , pages Let's say we have a tweeter impedance of 6 Ohms, a woofer impedance of 4 Ohms, and a crossover frequency between the two of Hz. You would then calculate each component as:. This example was relatively simple, but for higher-order crossovers, this crossover calculator makes it a breeze to work out which components you need to build your custom speaker design.

If you set the number of speakers in the calculator to one, you'll be able to choose from two additional circuits that involve a single speaker - Zobel and L-pad. Let's briefly explore these circuits. A speaker contains a coil of wire, which acts as an inductor. This behavior then causes the speaker's impedance to change with the frequency of the sound.

However, the calculations for the crossover circuit assumes a constant speaker impedance. The solution is to place a Zobel circuit between the crossover circuit and the speaker, which stabilises the speaker's impedance as seen from the crossover circuit. The Zobel circuit is quite simple, consisting of a resistor and capacitor wired in parallel to the speaker as shown in the circuit diagram.

Enter the speaker's inductance and resistance these values should be on the speaker's specification sheet , and the calculator will give capacitor and resistor values for this circuit. For example, if a speaker has a resistance of 6 Ohms and an inductance of 1.

This circuit is used to attenuate the signal to a speaker and consists of two resistors in an arrangement that resembles the letter "L" as shown in the circuit diagram. Enter the speaker's impedance and the amount of attenuation required in decibels dB to calculate the values of the two resistors. As an example, say we wanted to attenuate a speaker with an impedance of 8 Ohms by 5 dB.

The calculations for the two resistors are:. Embed Share via. Crossover Calculator Created by Steven Wooding. Table of contents: Why more speakers are better than one Passive crossover design Order and filter type How to use the speaker crossover calculator Example of calculating a 2-way passive crossover design Additional circuits - Zobel and L-pad.

Before designing a crossover, the cabinet must be fully assembled including ports and drivers. I typically run a separate speaker wire from each driver out of the port and label each wire. For sealed loudspeakers, connect the woofer to the binding post as this is the first driver measured in the cabinet.

Using SoundEasy, each driver is measured in the cabinet to obtain frequency response and electrical impedance. These parameters are obtained following the test methodology outlined in our Loudspeaker Measurement Standard. Please note that any measurements taken near field must factor in the effects of baffle diffraction. SoundEasy allows modeling and application of baffle diffraction estimates to any frequency response data.

Getting good measurement data is one of the hardest parts of loudspeaker design. It is crucial to validate your results by taking measurements using both near field and quasi-anechoic gated techniques and compare the measurements before proceeding.

Although CAD has come a long way, designing a loudspeaker crossover benefits from some background in electronics.

SoundEasy has 2-way to 5-way crossover templates covering 1 st order to 4 th order crossover topologies. Additionally, there are templates for a wide array of typical filters and compensation circuits. The CAD framework allows implementation of any circuit or filter topology imaginable so long as it uses inductors, resistors, capacitors, operational amplifiers, potentiometers or logic gates.

If you have not ever studied filter design or do not know what the previously-mentioned elements are, you may want to consider studying up to improve your chances of pulling off a working and affordable solution. The first step I take when designing a crossover in SoundEasy is to determine workable crossover frequencies and filter orders.

This requires careful inspection of the driver data sheets, frequency response measurement and driver impedance. It is imperative to make sure that response anomalies, such as the breakup of a metal cone driver, are sufficiently attenuated by the crossover so that they are not audible.

It is generally a good idea to keep the crossover frequencies low enough to prevent driver beaming but high enough to prevent driver failure. For example, crossing over most tweeters below 1. Crossing an 8 inch bass driver at 5kHz will result in poor dispersion and transient response at higher frequencies.