Active crossovers

[Dan Turner]

I'm intrigued by active crossovers. As I understand it the active cross over would sit between pre amp and power amps and filters the frequency range so that the output to each power amp contains only the appropriate frequencies for the speaker driver it's connected to.

If you use an active crossover, do you simply remove the passive one from your speakers so that each speaker driver is connected directly to the input terminals?

Any ideas where to go for a decent active crossover - anything to watch out for - disadvantages to a passive crossover?

 

[Andrew Everard]

You really need a) speakers without any crossovers at all, or designed to have their crossovers bypassed,

and b) an active crossover tailored to the characteristics of the drive units the speakers use, and their interaction with the enclosure in which they're mounted.