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Gonna Build a Marchand Crossover for my Belle Clones


dan4510

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I wanted to experiment with tri amping for quite a while. Bought a kit from marchand with 24db slopes and cross at 450 hz and 4500 hz. Replaced the cheap opamps with high dollar ones and really looking forward to hooking this up.

Am also building a custom wood box out of red oak to put it in. As I go along I will post pictures.

Will give me incentive to finally stain all areas of the speakers so they look good.

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, here is as far as I have gone. Built the four boards. Now am gonna build a red oak box to put it in that is 3" tall, 12" deep, and 17" wide.

Ordered the power supply already built. Also upgraded to almost the best opamps. After research it turns out that the opamps used can be a be determinate of the sound produced. So I researched them and the almost best was $4 an opamp opposed for the best at $9 an opamp. It seems that the difference between the two is not much. However, the difference between the opamps supplied with the kit and the $4 ones I bought is huge. Found out the opamps provided with the kit can be bought for less than 50cents each, so it was a worth while upgrade.

Crossove points will be 450 and 4500 at 24db/octave. I bought other crossover modules to experiment with at 400, 500, 3000, 3500, 4000.

My midrange is a JBL 2482 on a jbl 2380 horn. Frequency range is 300-5000.

My tweeter is JBL 2404 with frequency range of 3000-20,000.

I picked the 4500 point to try first to try and keep the most sound produced by the midrange and it starts pooping out at 4800 or so. Right now I have no crossover on the high point of the midrange, I just let the drive go out on its own and use a capacitor to block under about 4400 for the tweeter. It sounds great, but I think it will be even better with the electronic crossover at all crossover points.

Dan

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Also bought the best pots I could find, were about $12 each, far beyond what comes on any manufacturere equipment. spent several hours researching this to make sure I had the right curves, values, etc.

The pots are the round things at teh top of the photo lined up. Use two for midrange adjustment, two for tweeter adjustment.

Midrange is 117d/meter/watt efficient, tweeter is 107d/m/watt efficient.

Dan

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And to be honest, this was a job. I found out how much my hands shake, how blind I am and how hot the end of a soldering iron is, not once but several times.

One last bit of advice, DON'T SOLDIER WHILE WEARING SHORTS!

Dan, recovering from the pain....

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And to be honest, this was a job. I found out how much my hands shake, how blind I am and how hot the end of a soldering iron is, not once but several times.

One last bit of advice, DON'T SOLDIER WHILE WEARING SHORTS!

Dan, recovering from the pain....

Very funny,

Getting older Maybe?

When I was a young fella a remember kneeling on a hot iron, in shorts[:S]

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Yeh, I am getting older. Turned 52 this month and have had a lot of health problems during the last 20 years. Its been several years since I tried close work like this and found out I lost a lot of steadyness, fine motor control, and up close detail on my eyes. Only thing that really bothers me about this is the implications for using a handgun for self defense...may have to move up to a pump shotgun to make sure I hit now...lol They say there is nothing louder in the dead of night than a pump shotgun racking in a shell.

Oh, well, you live and learn. I got it done anyway and they look quite good, all the solider points are solid and I cant wait till i get the box done and everything wired up and see how it sounds.

Dan

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I bought the op amps from http://www.digikey.com, part number was OPA2134PA-ND Burr Brown

cost about $4 each
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The pots were from http://www.abra-electronics.com part number P2W10K, 2 Watt Linear Taper Potentiometers- 10K Ohms

got knobs to fit also from them part number KN-1

I bought the linear taper since that was what marchand recommends.

Dan

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  • 2 months later...

Latest update on my crossover build. Mocked up how I am gonna place the boards in the box. Box is made of 1/4" thick red oak. Will finish building box, stain it, and put electronics back in wire it up.

Hopefully in the next two weeks. Can't wait to complete it and hook it up.

Dan

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nice wood box.

Nice selection for components.

The line levels are pretty high, so depending what gets co-located to your. xover, noise might not be a problem. But, if you do pick up noise, and want to stay with a wooden box, line the inside with a continuos length of metal screen like the type used for window screens and ground the screen, power supply, and rca jacks using a star grounding system. use spacers under the circuit boards so the circuit trace does not touch the screening.

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More pics. Wiring done except for 110 supply to power up with. I am not the most organized with the wiring, but it goes where its supposed to and is soldered llike it should be.

Now I just gotta finish the box. Gonna have a hinged lid so I either have it closed or open to look at.

Dan

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