are passive crossovers compatible w other brands?

[12voltjunky]

i have a set of Boston Acoustics 620x crossovers that came
from an old school set of Rc-620 2-way components.

are these compatible with other brands of speakers?

[Bfowler]

well it will make sound if thats what you are asking.

they are usually specifically designed for the speakers they came with. but if the speakers are smiler to the original, it should sound ok

[12voltjunky]

when you mention that it could sound ok, if the speakers being used are similar to the originals...do you mean similar as in the T&S parameters?

[Bfowler]

yes i know the specific ohm load comes in play, im not sure what other specs really make the difference though

[Pillow]

Simple answer is yes.

More complex answer is maybe. It depends more on the curves of the mids and tweeters and where they overlap nicely.

... Then again some will argue that placement/install is more important than the crossover points.

Really the most dangerous thing is crossing over the tweeter too low as it will die when forced to play too low than its range allows.

Also I like crossover slopes to be 18dB+... Which are hard to find.

I have a mutant system setup, so we will see how it goes. AVI mids, RSd tweets, and old a/d/s/ crossovers.

[12voltjunky]

wonder how the Boston 620x crossover would work with focal 165cv coaxials?

[ttocs]

it is EXTREMELY important if you were to do this that you use drivers with the same impedence or it will throw off the x-over point.

[stipud]

Impedance and efficiency are the most important to match. However, some crossovers have notch filtering to adjust for imperfections in the speakers as well. In this case it would throw your entire sound out of whack, since the other speaker is likely tonally different.

Best option is always going to be running the speakers that the crossover was designed for.

[KUB3]

I'm told that dynaudio drivers need a dynaudio x-over, as they have special attention paid to keep the impedance correct over the range. Many other brands may be similar.

Perhaps you could generalise and say for the cheaper end of the market it might not be quite so important. So long as your treble is looked after and the drivers were of similar size as intended.

Having said that, some high end passive x-overs are fully adjustable! Or you could mod them anyway!

[NewOldStock]

IMO - boston crossovers would probably be ok to be used with other speakers as long as the new speakers are similar in spec. (T/S and Impedence)

Boston makes good stuff though so I wouldnt be too worried about it.

Your other option is to just run everything active and get yourself an MX2 crossover. you can find minty ones for relatively inexpensive.

[scottn29]

same ohm speaker= same crossover frequency

most have a resistor wired in there to match the sensitivity of the speakers

If it has impedance matching section then it wont work well, and like previously stated notch filtering would throw things out of whack also.

IMO you are better off starting from scratch and working up from there, not to hard to do a simple 12db L-R crossover, but to fully tweak it out you need to take some FR measurement and go from there, and that will depend alot on the install location

[12voltjunky]

bumpity bump bump...

ok gang, i need some more input on this please.
im going for a major budget install here and want to add some aftermarket tweeters to factory door speakers.
I want to use a ti 500.4 to power the tweets and the front and the rear door speakers.

should i use the boston crossovers i have lying around? Should I go active and use the amps x-over? or should i simply use the freq blockers that normally come with inexpensive tweeters?

[Grim0013]

If the drivers you are using have the same nominal impedance as the ones the x-over was designed for it will work. It is unlikely to be ideal (since nominal impedance and actual impedance at a given frequency are two different things, not to mention any other application-specific filters that might be in there), but it will work.

[Bfowler]

break out the muli meter and see how similar the speakers are. it will probably sound fine.