The use of active crossovers is increasing. They are used by almost every sound reinforcement system, and by almost every recording studio monitoring set-up. There is also a big usage of active crossovers in car audio, with the emphasis on routing the bass to enormous low-frequency loudspeakers. Active crossovers are used to a small but rapidly growing extent in domestic hifi, and I argue that their widespread introduction may be the next big step in this field.





The Design of Active Crossovers has now been updated and extended for the Second Edition, taking in developments in loudspeaker technology and crossover design. Many more pre-designed filters are included so that crossover development can be faster and more certain, and the result will have a high performance. The Second Edition continues the tradition of the first in avoiding complicated algebra and complex numbers, with the mathematics reduced to the bare minimum; there is nothing more complicated to grapple with than a square root.





New features of the Second Edition include:





More on loudspeaker configurations and their crossover requirements:


MTM Mid-Tweeter-Mid configurations (The d'Appolito arrangement)


Line arrays (J arrays) for sound reinforcement


Frequency tapering


Band zoning


Power tapering


Constant-Beamwidth Transducer (CBT) loudspeaker arrays





More on specific sound-reinforcement issues like the loss of high frequenc