L200 woofers and 2435HPL in biAmp mode
I got sound to the Active crossover from CDR (HK changer) and CD (the "airtunes" signal 11,000 songs shuffling on my Mac upstairs) - but I couldn't get any sound from Cable box/TV - and Monday night is the guilty pleasure of "24" - so we watched with the center audio and rear speakers only working. I tried other output jacks and still only had audio with those few sources.
After 24, I finally figured out the problem.
In my JVC receiver I have 3 digital optical inputs - CATV, my VCR/DVD recorder, and my standalone DVD player. Those feeds generate multichannel/surround for Digital Dolby or DTS signal - and work quite well.
Unfortunately, when I tap the Tape out RCA jacks to feed the crosover, it doesn't convert digital to analog - so I only get audio from analog sources!
Which does work for CDs and FM and such, but I didn't get a chance to give it a good shakedown(!). That'll have to wait 'til tomorrow after work.
The M552 has a tunable crossover point - from my very brief tests it sounds best somewhere around 1200-1500Hz or so. I'm feeding low out to the Citation 22 in Stereo Mode - 200w/ch to the 2215 woofers. Feeding high out through the T-amp to the 2435. Levels are pretty critical. Before dinner I was trying different settings and turned the T-amp to 3/4 and hit a sweet spot with some Pat Metheny-American Garage playing. Sounded VERY nice. But another song might want different settings.
Of course, the real question is - what I would need to run this system with a passive crossover? I mean, its just a 2-way ... shouldn't take much - and an Lpad to help match levels.
Thanks again to Zilch for all this madness - I need a weekend tomorrow just to try all this out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Zilch
Zilch makes CHAOS of Heather's listening room.
Heh, heh.
[She'll be up kinda late tonight.... :D ]
"I mean, it's just a two-way...."
I don't know how high the 2215/LE15A is good for, but you can hear the blend as you adjust the crossover frequency on the M552. This is easier to hear listening to a pink noise source, if you have a CD with that. Soon as I hear the horn coloration, that's the lowest usable crossover frequency.
At Zilchlab, it's LE14s and 2235s almost exclusively, and I strive to get the frequency as low as sounds good, which is 920 Hz with those horns here. The smaller PT-F version I'm running a little higher, 1 kHz.
Once that is set, vary the balance between LF and HF. The T-Amp volume control provides the coarse adjustment, then use the M552 HF gain controls to fine tune it. Tweak the frequency again after that, maybe, to optimize.
Since you're driving with tape out, which is fixed, there's no master volume. Use the input gain controls on M552 for that, and L/R balance. Your LF amp is the baseline against which against which everything else is adjusted using this scheme.
The compensation filter should work nearly as well with passive crossovers; these experiments will tell you what frequency is optimum with your woofers. If you decide to go this way, you'll make the final determination with the horns mounted in the L200 cabinets. They'll sound a bit different, then. You've got big distance between the woofers and horns presently; they'll be significantly more coherent once mounted on the same baffle and close to the woofers.
Amps off first, on last, 'cause M552 doesn't turn on or off gracefully....