Sound Quality

What’s a Crossover?

Chances are if you’re reading this, you already know what a crossover is and you know that you need one. But if you are new to multi-way PA systems, here is a brief overview.

Loudspeakers (which we call transducers) convert electrical signals into sound waves. And no matter how well a transducer is designed and made, it simply cannot reproduce the entire audio spectrum all by itself. Low-frequency sounds tend to push a transducer to its maximum, making it impossible for that same transducer to reproduce the treble content with the sound quality it deserves. (Try singing high falsetto next time you’re bench-pressing your limit!)

That is why high-quality sound systems use multiple speakers (woofers and tweeters) to share the work. When the woofer (usually the larger transducer) does all the heavy lifting, the tweeter can easily handle the high-frequency stuff. Three- and four-way systems distribute the work even more, allowing the individual transducers to reproduce the frequency range they are best suited to. It is the crossover’s function to divide these tasks between the various transducers.

Divide and Conquer

The CX2310 provides two modes of operation: 2-way stereo, for left and right Lows (woofers) and Highs (tweeters); and 3-way mono, for Lows, Mids and Highs. In either mode, there is an additional output provided for a mono subwoofer with its own frequency range and level controls.  This extra feature effectively turns the CX2310 into a stereo 2-way + mono 1-way, or a mono 4-way frequency crossover. The subwoofer signal is presented in mono, since people tend to perceive really low bass frequencies as coming from all directions.

By using 1% metal film resistors, along with other extremely tight-tolerance components, the CX2310 is able to guarantee surgically precise frequency selection with incredibly low thermal noise. State-of-the-art, ultra low-noise op amps ensure super-quiet operation. CX3400’s elegant LED matrix shows at a glance which operation mode is selected and which controls are active.

Getting Connected