Passive speaker designers traditionally find a three-way speaker troublesome - apparently - and many stick to two-way. For example:
And the problems with a two-way (active or passive) would appear to be many, including:
If a three-way active is better than a two-way, is a four-way therefore better than a three-way? Why not five-way or more? (putting aside the practical or cost aspects, but even then we might assume that multi-way DACs and amplifiers could be made reasonably cheaply, and that the drivers would have a much easier job to do so maybe their specs could be relaxed).
In other words, the passive approach cannot make a good 3, 4, 5 or 6-way speaker regardless of cost.In my opinion, passive crossovers are useful for small 2-way systems, or where you aren't looking for the ultimate in performance. ...
...When an attempt is made to create a 3-way or even 4-way system, the complexities rapidly become such that the cost of the crossover network can become so high that an active system will actually be cheaper.
...Should you attempt a 3-way passive design, you will almost certainly need to include a Zobel network for the bass driver, as well as resonance correction for the midrange. When you add this complexity it becomes quite obvious that the passive approach will be large, complex and expensive. The losses introduced will be such that sensitivity will be significantly lower than you might like, the damping factor for the woofer will be severely limited by the series inductor, and the system will still be a compromise.
And the problems with a two-way (active or passive) would appear to be many, including:
- drivers being stretched over wide frequency range leading to various types of distortion
- drivers driven too high begin to beam, in contrast to the next driver up, leading to a lumpy dispersion characteristic against frequency
If a three-way active is better than a two-way, is a four-way therefore better than a three-way? Why not five-way or more? (putting aside the practical or cost aspects, but even then we might assume that multi-way DACs and amplifiers could be made reasonably cheaply, and that the drivers would have a much easier job to do so maybe their specs could be relaxed).