# Custom crossovers



## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

I'm soon going to be building a 2.5 speaker for my house using plans i found on the Internet. But what values are important for the crossover, for caps what's important voltage and capacitance? For coils dc resistance and inductance? For resistors watts and ohms?

And clarification would be great


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

I would use the crossovers that came with the plans...chances are who ever designed them has the crossover pretty much tweaked for the enclosure they are in and the response they wanted.

What speakers are you looking at building?


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## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

PEERLESS-NOMEX-164

It seems like a nice starting point for building awesome home speakers, and all of the details for building it are documented on the page


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

I wouldn't change a thing from Troel's design. Get the best parts you can afford.


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## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

lol, I dont want to, but i cant seem to find the coils with the same DC resistance as the once that he listed


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Have you checked Parts Express? They sell Jantzen, which is what he uses...probably 15ga coils.

Troels likes metal oxide resistors, the ones he uses are 10 watt. If you were getting everything at PE, the Mills would be as good or better than what he uses.

If you are on a budget, build the crossovers with the Dayton brand caps and resistors. Those caps can really add up fast, especially the boutique Jantzen parts he uses.

Some people say expensive parts matter, some don't. I would say use the cheaper stuff to see if you like how the kit sounds...and if you do, upgrade the tweeter first, the top midbass next, and the .5 midbass last.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

That big 2.2mH coil is probably custom wound for that kit/him.

Meniscus Audio stocks 14ga coils for a good price. Their 2.2mH is pretty close. I think the 2.2 and .68mH coils are 14ga, the .1mH is 20ga, and the .22 is 18ga.

Meniscus will also custom wind coils for you. They also sell Eagle MOX resistors, Solen and Erse capacitors...which are pretty decent caps.

And the guys at Meniscus are helluva nice guys.


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## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks, I've managed to gather a price list for just the caps and its 181.20 for the ones he specified. does the voltage of the caps matter?

BTW everyone is out of the z-superior 6.2 uF caps so is there an alternative brand i can use?


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## Moon Track (Mar 10, 2011)

I was lurking here often , decided to post. I’m not English man, so forgive to me grammatical and lexical errors.
Cap’s voltage is the higher the better. The minimal cap voltage can to be approximately 80-100 volts AC. For reliability, you can use 250 volt AC capacitors absolutely freely. These are first order crossovers and there is no necessity to use something super stable. Actually, this big capacitor is Zobel circuit, to compensate speaker’s inductivity, and you can use here a polyester capacitor instead of polypropylene. Practically any brand poly cap will work here. Coil DC resistance is not so critical, just use cooper, air core coil with the same wire diameter and inductivity. 
I should say, this HDS N-6-33/08 is not so amazing as described in article.
The 48hz free resonance speaker for relatively big box is not so superb,.
If you want a good home speaker I’d recommend to look at visaton.de, there are kits with complete documentation (just press the “Construction” button).


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

The Sonicaps at Mensicus are really nice. The Obbligato Film caps are really nice as well.

Just depends on your budget on how wild or mild you want to go...and at what point you want to push the diminishing returns on expensive caps.


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## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

Gotta love the rule of diminishing returns, the speaker I REALLY wanna build is the ZAHARA listed on that page, not only does it look cool, I already have the 13m drivers. But it's 6-8 weeks for the 9800 tweeter due to it's a special order item. Thanks for the info so far guys, any opinions on the zahara?


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

I have never heard any of Troel's designs, but people who have built them really enjoy them.

Speaking of diminishing returns, look at the price of the Delund passive components...the top of the line cast capacitor is clocking in at over 4 grand.


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## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

Holy Christ, 4k for a cap? That's as much as I make in a month


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## Moon Track (Mar 10, 2011)

Ultra high grade components , they have a point if you tune your system yourself, with precise equipment and in right environment. To replicate someone’s project ,there will be enough to use just normal, good quality components. 
Zahra speaker is absolutely different deal, balanced choice of drivers with nice characteristics, higher order crossovers, box shaped to kill the standing waves. All speaks that this speaker will be sounding very and very decently. Note that there are used two coils with ferromagnetic cores. Actually, there is important magnetic strength of the ferrite core, but it will be hard to compare. Just look for similar coils with the same inductance ,wire diameter and dimensions. You can use here “generic” polypropylene capacitors 250 V AC and tolerance 3-5% (look that in their datasheet are being mentioned audio applications). 22mkF for lower bass speaker can to be a polyester cap.


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## mcgilvrey007 (Feb 22, 2010)

Thank you very much moon track, I'm going to go ahead and begin gathering components to build the zahara driver


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## Moon Track (Mar 10, 2011)

I had some time to think about this project. I missed two another midwoofer coils, and in reality you have four ferromagnetic coils. And after some thought the 250v AC is looking as an overkill. Actually, at 100-120 Watt power ,the crossover will see no more then 40-50volts AC (72 V DC in peaks) from amplifier. There will be the EMI response from speakers and coils, dampened by amplifier and shifted in phase. Theoretically, with a 180 degrees shift you will have a maximal voltage 100V AC (145V DC in peaks). You need in a bigger voltage rating just for peace of mind and for sick amplifiers with low dampening factor or self-oscillation. So, you are free in your choice of the cap from 110V AC.


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