Balanced 2in 4Out Active Line Crossover Recommendations

[DrSpan]

I am looking for an active line crossover in order to split a stereo signal to Highs and lows, ideally with a variable X-Over frequency
and even more ideally with One knob dial that is tuned to the right steepness of filters in order to avoid having to manually match the Low cut and High cut frequency
points by hand every time.

Can you suggest any good quality ones that won`t break the bank? I was thinking 500 euros as the upper cost limit

I know MiniDsp and then this one https://www.xkitz.com/products/linkwitz-riley-2-way-active-crossover-fully-balanced-xover-2b. however this is Diy and i would like to avoid
the elaborate time and effort of Diy as i am not good in building things. A ready solution would be great.

I know there are similar posts but they are a bit old and some have drifted away from the topic.


My aim is not to split the signal for an Active speaker but:
Go out of the Audio interface-> split signal in Lo+Hi -> send different portions of the signal to two different Hardwear devices for audio processing-mangling
for sound experimentation and then go directly into 4 inputs (2 for the low two for the highs) of the Interface.

 

[Sokel]

The only way I can think of if you want to go cheap, analog and balanced with decent results is DIY.
Something like a dirt cheap x-over board like the one I measured here with decent results, but more advanced, couple of SE>BAL also dirt cheap active boards of the likes of DRV134, power all of them with some decent 15-0-15VDC PSU and you will be good to go.

The boards you linked seemed to have meh performance all though I feel there's something wrong at their specs, even basic, decent design should place them near -100dB TDN+N and above, not at the '80's as they spec.

 

[JohnnyNG]

K231 Stereo 3-Way Active Crossover

The K231 Stereo Electronic Crossover significantly improves the audio quality of your sound system by separating the high, mid and low frequency sounds using ultra low noise, high precision active filter circuits. This allows the use of a separate power amplifier channel for each speaker driver...

sublimeacoustic.com

 

[Schollaudio]

Ashly, DOD and other prosound units work very well for $50-200.

 

[somebodyelse]

We've only seen a few measured, and one of those was WAY over budget. Sticking to currently available balanced ones I think it's down to:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/behringer-dcx2496-eq-review.38879/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/dbx-223xs-crossover-review.35902/

 

[Sokel]

We've only seen a few measured, and one of those was WAY over budget. Sticking to currently available balanced ones I think it's down to:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/behringer-dcx2496-eq-review.38879/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/dbx-223xs-crossover-review.35902/

Let me add the epitome of cheap:

Behringer CX3400




(from the last page of the thread linked above)

Even the cheap little thing of the OP did way better.

 

[Sokel]

K231 Stereo 3-Way Active Crossover

The K231 Stereo Electronic Crossover significantly improves the audio quality of your sound system by separating the high, mid and low frequency sounds using ultra low noise, high precision active filter circuits. This allows the use of a separate power amplifier channel for each speaker driver...

sublimeacoustic.com

That's its specs:

The yellow is at the ~80's -90's THD+N and judging by its low distortion it's noise that dominates it.
I know it's not trivial to measure an x-over with filters at place as levels and slopes are all over the place but there are way older ones with much better results and highly configurable, as this one:

Marchand XM9 analog electronic crossover (short of) review

This is short of a review for the very old Marchand XM9 2-way crossover boards. It's a 30 years old design,probably discontinued and I got the unpopulated boards from a friend that kept them in a drawer with no use of them. Board looks like this: I used some different components,as LME...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Sample from the thread, down low.

(there's a chance it does way better as these are the limits of my measuring rig)

 

[JohnnyNG]

That's its specs:

View attachment 482525

The yellow is at the ~80's -90's THD+N and judging by its low distortion it's noise that dominates it.
I know it's not trivial to measure an x-over with filters at place as levels and slopes are all over the place but there are way older ones with much better results and highly configurable, as this one:

Marchand XM9 analog electronic crossover (short of) review

This is short of a review for the very old Marchand XM9 2-way crossover boards. It's a 30 years old design,probably discontinued and I got the unpopulated boards from a friend that kept them in a drawer with no use of them. Board looks like this: I used some different components,as LME...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Sample from the thread, down low.

View attachment 482528

(there's a chance it does way better as these are the limits of my measuring rig)

I always appreciate your analyses. My own K231 is definitely not silent when I get within a few inches of my 94dB tweeters but sounds very clean in operation.

The below review of another Marchand is kinda "meh"?

Marchand XM44 Analog Active Crossover Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marchand XM44-3 3-way Analog Active Crossover. It is on kind loan from a member. This is a modular 3-way system. As configured, it costs US $1,900. So not cheap. Question the owner had was how it compares to a digital crossover which he also...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Sokel]

The below review of another Marchand is kinda "meh"?

Marchand XM44 Analog Active Crossover Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marchand XM44-3 3-way Analog Active Crossover. It is on kind loan from a member. This is a modular 3-way system. As configured, it costs US $1,900. So not cheap. Question the owner had was how it compares to a digital crossover which he also...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I was surprised to see such low performance as well at that one.
Although noise is low-ish at -103dB it's distortion pattern makes no sense to me for OPA2134 , it almost looks like it's input is overloaded even if it can take good amounts of it.

Maybe settings, maybe pots (even if resistor controlled, long connections can pick up this forest of mains noise), maybe the added complexity of that design (although the one I measured has a fair amount of settings itself)

In general Marchand is honest about it's specs, it should measured as good or better as the one I have here.

Edit: I now see that is measured at 4V input but -6dB output, that's already a good hit on top of the other sins, plus can be some EQ lurking in there (it can do that too)

 

[Carlton80@0]

https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/pdf/old/ac22s_data.pdf

Simple adjustable balanced analog do.