xover or HP filter question

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oldschool

DJ Extraordinaire
Jun 25, 2018
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A friend brought over a powered speaker system that the amp went out on and he wants me to convert them into a pair of passive speakers to use in his shop to listen to while he works. There are (Anchor, Xtremextr6000c) One speaker has the amp built in and the other is an extension speaker with no amp in it.
I know converting powered speakers into passive speakers is not the ideal thing to do but this guy doesn't care as long as they sound (ok) and are good enough for a shop stereo.
So I did some experiments and they actually sound pretty good. But here is the problem.
The xover for the cabs are built into the amp with no passive xover for ether box.
I wired the lows in parallel with the tweeters just to make sure all the drivers work. I don't want to buy any passive xovers and thought I could instead just put a high pass filter to the tweets so they don't blow when he cranks them up. He's driving them with an old home stereo receiver so he not going to be pushing any more then about 75 watts. I think the amp that was built in is rated at about 150 watts.
I ran them with one of my PA amps and pushed them much harder then he ever will and they sounded great and the tweets didn't blow out.
What kind of high pass filter should I use to help protect the tweets without using a normal xover?
There may be one or two in the old amp that came out of the cab that I can salvage and use for a filter on the speakers.
Any suggestions? Thanks
 
You really want a xover in there ... otherwise you're feeding the fullrange signal to the woofer (if you only highpass the tweeter). You can do it with a passive design (I like PE .. crossover - Parts Express Ships Fast and Ships Free. - (https://www.parts-express.com/search.aspx?InStockIndicator=1&N=4294967118+4294964742&Nrs=collection%28%29%2Frecord%5Bendeca%3Amatches%28.%2C%22P_PortalID%22%2C%221%22%29+and+endeca%3Amatches%28.%2C%22P_InStock%22%2C%221%22%29+and+endeca%3Amatches%28.%2C%22P_Searchable%22%2C%221%22%29%5D&Ns=P_BestPrice%7C0&Ntt=crossover*&PortalID=1) ) or from a Driverack.

Without a xover, you have the woofer trying to create the highs as well.

I have a similar Anchor (4500) ... not really hifi level boxes .. best for speaking.
 
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Thanks Steve, I was looking at xovers on speakerparts.com but there are so many to chose from. Not knowing what the xover frequency is for these boxes are I'm not sure witch xover to use. I wish I had some old dead speakers laying around and could salvage the xovers from them but I dont have any laying around. A two way xover is all it needs and he's really not looking for them to be HiFi speakers, just shop speakers and he doesn't even listen to music that much, he like talk radio most of the time.
 
I ran them full range feeding both the lows and tweets and pushed them pretty hard last night for several hours and they sounded pretty good. Then I ran them full range and added a sub with them (using two amps and an active xover and they really sounded pretty good with subs for more low end.
 
Crossover is probably around 2500 Hz (give or take) .. pretty common in smaller 2-way systems.
 
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you could wire them for Bi-amping wiring using a 4 pole speakon connector. that way you can use an external crossover and 1 amp run in Mono. Use a cheap peavey crossover and use one channel of the amp for the mid driver the other for the tweeter. one speakon into the first box, out from that box into the second. That is probably what I would do in this situation that way you wouldn't have to bother with internal crossover networks.

+1-1 Woofer, +2-2 Horn
 
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You're better off finding a pair of used passive speakers on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. Those Anchor systems sound terrible and are way overpriced for what they are.
 
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B-Sharp said:
You're better off finding a pair of used passive speakers on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. Those Anchor systems sound terrible and are way overpriced for what they are.
Click to expand...
I concurr...the mostly likely inexpensive x-overs are gonna be in $25 each neighborhood, then you have to modify the cabinet and purchase the necessary connectors...your time and supplies...requires an external amplifier, all for predictably disappointing results (cosmetically and audibly) for right under $100...just buy a decent set of powered blue-tooth capable speaks and get to enjoying the sound of music as opposed to gnashing of teeth in frustration.
 
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B-Sharp said:
You're better off finding a pair of used passive speakers on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. Those Anchor systems sound terrible and are way overpriced for what they are.
Click to expand...
Yeah he's a cheap ass and doesn't' want to spend a lot of money on shop speakers. He's the impatient type and says he can't fond any thing at any pawn shops or CL. I looked on GC used stie but most only have one cab and not in pairs. I could order one from two diffrent stors and come up with and pair.
I called a local speaker repair shop to see if they had some passives xovers laying around but no luck, I did find one PV xover but he wanted 50 bucks.

I'm just going to be strait with him and let him know what it will cost to convert these cabs vs. buying some old used pa cabs and be done with it.
I He wants to just use an old stereo receiver to drive them so he's not looking for a an active xover and several amps the run them. He wants to keep it simple. Besides It
s going a welding shop that is not climate controlled and it will be very dusty and dirty environment.
 
PartsExpress has simple HP and LP 2,500 Hz crossovers for about $7.50 each ... you'd need 1 of each per side. They have 4 ohm and 8 ohm versions. They're even less at $6.50 each if you create a business account.
 
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