Altec Valencia shrillness

[Panomaniac]

The Rane is a nice idea. Just be sure you have some protection on the horn drivers when you go active. I'd use fixed L-Pad (2 resistors) for sure, and maybe a cap.

The Rane should sound nice right out of the box and will be much easier to use than the DCX2496.

[haryn]

Old Guy,
Can I just use one of these to go to two power amps, so as to power my 4 speakers, or do I need to have 2 of them. My apparently older pair is 16 ohm, while the other pair is 8 ohm. They would need different volume I would think to sound the same? I don't want to cheapen things up now, but of course don't want to spend money that I can't hear a difference with.
I just bought a new Marantz single CD player, to replace my 10 year old Pioneer DVD player that was skipping at times at high volume. I had read that a single disk, stand alone CD sounded better than DVD players. Well $350 later, I can play two indentical CD's on both at the same time, and switch back and forth, and can't hear any difference at all.
I have to think that this bi-amping with a good xover will make a difference. I saw one for sale with 6 outputs. If I output the high frequency to my Pioneer as say a tape input, it has A and B speaker outputs that could go to all 4 horns. I wouldn't be able to vary the volume though between the 16 and 8 ohm horns, if I even needed to.
Not having seen one of these xovers, and being new to a lot of the terminology, makes your advice very valuble.

[Panomaniac]

You've come to the right place, for sure. Many of us here use this type of gear for a living.

So let me see if I understand what you've got. 2 pairs of Valencias, one 8 ohm, the other 16 ohm, yeah? And you want to run all 4 (both pairs) at the same time, right?

IF that is the case, you will have some trouble with the 8/16 ohm thing. The 8 ohm pair run louder when driven with the same signal. I think that minimum you'd want 1 active crossover and 3 stereo amps. You can use the L-pad to bring the 8 ohm horns down a bit, they could be driven off the same amp as the 16 ohm horns.

[haryn]

"So let me see if I understand what you've got. 2 pairs of Valencias, one 8 ohm, the other 16 ohm, yeah? And you want to run all 4 (both pairs) at the same time, right?

Yes that is correct. I also will be running a center speaker, and 2 KLH's, but only want to bi-amp the Valencias.

Is an Lpad the adjustment on the crossover? I can change the gain of each set of speakers with my Harman Kardon receiver, before it goes to its pre-amp outputs, so I don't know if I would need that.

[Old Guy]

Is an Lpad the adjustment on the crossover? I can change the gain of each set of speakers with my Harman Kardon receiver, before it goes to its pre-amp outputs, so I don't know if I would need that.

Very confusing what you are asking here.

There are NO L-pads on an active crossover. (Generally)

L-pads can be line level(preamp) or high level (speaker). They are used to reduce signal mostly. they can have other uses but not important right now.

In this forum, generally assume they are speaker L pads.

What Pano said is if you put the 8 ohm and 16 ohm speakers on the same amp the 8 ohm will draw more power from the amp, thus play louder. An L-pad could balance this. An example of a variable L-pad is the level control on a Valencia. L-pads are more complex than a simple resistor. With active xovers you have gain controls so generally do not use L-pads.

NO YOU CANNOT adjust the gain of each speaker from the preamp.

ONE set of preamp out goes to the input on the Active xover. So you have no separate adjustment

If you wanna do that you need 2 xovers and 4 amps. One xover and two amps per set of Valencias.

[Altec Best]

An L-pad is nothing more than a variable resistor that allows you to increase or decrease the Mid-High Frequencies. It allows you to adjust the acoustics of your speaker MF-HF to your listening room.

PS. Pano & OG have been doing this a very long time and are giving you great advice !

Those big round things are your L-pads this is a rebuilt model 19 Xo which allows you MF and HF control

[haryn]

So with an Lpad, I could run all 4 horns off of one amp, 2 horns on each channel with the Lpad to soften the 8 ohm horn? Can I run 2 power amps for the woofers off of one active crosserover, as in siamese the outputs to run to both amps?

[Old Guy]

An L-pad is nothing more than a variable resistor that allows you to increase or decrease the Mid-High Frequencies. ]

Technically. that is misleading.

A resistor is a resistor, an L-Pad is a network of resistors

"The L pad does this by having two separate rheostats connected in an "L' configuration (hence the name). One rheostat is connected in series with the loudspeaker and, as the [[Electrical resistance|resistance]] of this rheostat increases, less power is coupled into the loudspeaker and the [[loudness]] of sound produced by the loudspeaker decreases. The second rheostat is connected between the input and ground (earth). As the first rheostat increases in resistance, the second rheostat decreases in resistance, keeping the load impedance (presented at the input of the L pad) constant. The second rheostat usually has a special ''taper'' (function of resistance versus rotation) to accommodate the need for constant input impedance."

Cheap L-Pads may just be a rheostat, which is why people pull them and put in fixed pads.

[haryn]

I think I am getting closer now, and want to run this by you all.

If I put one of these L-pads on each of the 8-ohm horns, to lower the volume level to match the 16 ohm horns. Are these at Parts Express good ones?
Eminence PX-LPAD Crossover L-Pad Attenuator | Parts-Express.com

I would run the 2 pairs of horns out of the Pioneer with AB speaker outputs.

What about this xover, with 6 outputs.
BBE DS26 2-Input 6-Output Loudspeaker Management System | Parts-Express.com
It would appear to a novice like me that the 6 outputs would be right and left on 3 different channels.
One set of outputs would go to one power amp and then to one pair of woofers, one set to the other power amp and then to the other woofers, and the last set to the Pioneer and the 4 horns, with the 8 ohm horns having the L-pads attached to the speaker in between the input wires and the horn wires. Is this right, or is this crossover overkill for a stereo? I have read some bad things about the Behringers quality, and I would think it would be simplier to have just one box with the 6 outputs that I need instead of 3.

What about resistors that were mentioned? Any recommendations on exactly what I need? Also, I have read that I need to know the frequency response of each speaker to set the xover. Does anyone know where I can get that, or it is just a matter of playing around with it tell it sounds the best?

Then all I would need is the XLR to RCA jacks, so I can plug everything together since all my amps have RCA plugs? Am I missing something, or does someone have a better place to buy or like a different brand?

[Old Guy]

So with an Lpad, I could run all 4 horns off of one amp, 2 horns on each channel with the Lpad to soften the 8 ohm horn? Can I run 2 power amps for the woofers off of one active crosserover, as in siamese the outputs to run to both amps?