2. speakers
  3. 1291347880

Making active speakers with 4 Gallo A'Divas

In the process of researching new speakers for my office I've read about the benefits of active speakers over passive speakers. It came to me that I could use 4 Gallo A'Divas, controlled by an active crossover, and powered by two ROTH MC4s, to create 2-way active speakers.

A'Diva as the mid/bass and A'Diva Ti as the mid/treble. A subwoofer would take everything from 120hz down. My question is...how do I determine the best crossover point? Most speakers seem to cross the mid/treble between 1.7k and 2.2k. With full-range speakers I imagine it could be anywhere. I'm just thinking of how to make them produce the same volume/workload, so they blend well.

Any ideas?
What's a good inexpensive crossover?

Thanks!
Mot
manoterror
timlub
1,649 posts
 
Hi Manoterror,
If these are single full range drivers, Why would you need an electronic crossover? All my above comments were made assuming that you would not use any passive components. I would recommend however that you cross your mid driver as low as possible, keeping the crossover point out of the vocal region for best results. Unless of course your drivers require being crossed in that region.
manoterror OP
216 posts
 
@Timlub: Technically, I don't need one, as I could run two sets of them full-range, in tandem...which I will try as well. I felt that splitting the signal, and letting them each produce a part of the full signal would be easier on each one, and thus produce fuller sound.

For instance, the Gallo Reference AV uses 4 of these fullrange drivers, with a tweeter, as a single speaker. The outter 2 drivers only handle 100hz down, to free the inner 2 from having to work so hard to produce the full range.
timlub
1,649 posts
 
Hi Manoterror,
It seems that you have answered all of your own questions. I was confused by your question when you asked about using an electronic crossover, but overall Herman is right on.
Your only benefit of the electronic crossover would be to select a good crossover and use one amp on a subwoofer and another on your spheres. Your hipass amp would be cleaner. If you decided to do that, I would recommend lower than 120hz as a crossover point, the Gallo A'Divas are capable of 76 hz. 120 hz in many rooms would be directional, if at all possible go to 100hz. Good Listening , Tim
Good Listening. Tim
manoterror OP
216 posts
 
My main question is still unanswered. I am using a sub for 100hz and below, and still need to figure out how to determine the best crossover point for the two A'Divas. I am not interested in running them full-range...thats the point of my project. To create a 2-way speaker, using an active crossover and 2 full-range single driver speakers on each side.

I need to figure out how to determine the crossover point that will provide a balanced volume from each speaker, along with not cutting into a vocal range, etc. I suppose I will just have to play with it until I figure something out.
timlub
1,649 posts
 
You have no great advantage to use a crossover in this configuration. What ever problems one driver has the other will share, the idea would be that if you had a low region coloration to cross it out to a woofer below or if you had a dip or peak in the upper mids to high end to cross it over to a tweeter, but with two identical drivers, your results will be similar with or without biamping, other than the upper amp should be a little cleaner not playing any bass. Good Listening, Tim
More to discover