I don't have access to any fancy equipment, but do have a digital volt meter. can I play a test disk with various known frequencies and somehow measure the speaker output, plot it in excel and figure out my crossover points on my stock 2006 BMW 550?
Will the frequencies that are below the crossover point slowly have less output (at them same volume) as they move further away from the crossover point? Does the voltage of the speaker output increase/decrease with volume?
You can get way closer than that. Once you hit the crossover frequency on a 12db filter, the signal level starts a dramatic dive. At the crossover point, the voltage will have already decreased by 30% and the power by half. Another octave and the voltage will be quartered. If you can't get within 1% using this technique something is wrong with you or your DVM.
I guess I could get that cheap RadioShak sound meter and play various frequencies and just plot the output like that. I would think that there would be a voltage change with a change in output of the speaker though.
I thought about the PC route, but don't have a laptop, and the desktop ain't moving!
Not only is this completely feasible but it's a standard electrical engineering lab experiment and is quite easy. Set your DVM on VAC and measure the input to the crossover and output (with load attached) at different frequencies. Compute the ratio out/in of these voltages. You can plot these on a log-log scale if you want but the crossover point is generally considered to be @ 3db down. If the crossover is symmetric that means the output of the high and low will be equal.
Not only is this completely feasible but it's a standard electrical engineering lab experiment and is quite easy. Set your DVM on VAC and measure the input to the crossover and output (with load attached) at different frequencies. Compute the ratio out/in of these voltages. You can plot these on a log-log scale if you want but the crossover point is generally considered to be @ 3db down. If the crossover is symmetric that means the output of the high and low will be equal.
So then -3dB crossover points are based on voltage, not power? I thought everything I came across was -3dB points were based on power. If you are -3dB down on voltage, you are -6dB (1/4 of the power!) down on power.
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