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Marchand XM44 Analog Active Crossover Review

Murky

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New member here. These crossovers are very popular with Magnepan owners. They enable you to do away with the speakers' external crossover and do it at the line level which is supposed to make a huge difference according to seemingly everyone who has tried one. The frequency module cards are really cheap ($6.00 each). A two way model requires 4 cards and you can buy the necessary caps and resistors from any big electronics supplier for a couple of bucks and solder up anything you want. Phil's website also has a simple calculator that tells you what caps and resistors you need to create your desired crossover points and slopes. You can find it under the "programs" section of his site. He makes it easy. I realize this sounds like a commercial, but I just went though it so I figured I would share my experience.

I just put my XM-44 into my system for the first time last night using crossover modules that mimic my speakers external crossovers points and slopes, but many Magnepan owners try various points and slopes to see what they like since the modules are so cheap to build. The verdict is still out on my setup as I have not done any serious listening yet.
 

jomark911

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Guys hello. I've been fiddling around with electronic cross for some years now, using it as the main cross over network for my DIY 4 way speaker project that includes , CORAL 15" WOOFERS , JBL 8"MIDBASS, CORAL 4"DOME MID , CORAL 1,3"DOME TWEETER.
The cross I used is a old SANSUI CD 10, electronic crossover network. As I said it's old from 1975. But it's very versatile.
Can be set for 2 types of 2 way , 2 types of 3way , 1 type of 4 way. Very nice studio performance from those days. Only thing I had to do was to exchange all 110 bipolar electrolytics to new ones and a pair of transistors.
I'm very pleased with it and I can assure you that I can do almost anything I want to , in the analog domain, except for time delay.
It also supports a wide selection of cross freqs and a variable slope 12db-18db , a bass boost with a separate cross freq for each way , almost anything. User adjusts whatever he wants to and tweaking is full of fan.
It can still be found for sale at the Japanese auction site , or even ebay.
I would strongly suggest it. Take a look.
 

jomark911

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Oh yes I like SANSUI and I 've got a special spot for SANSUI's.
The only one that looks a bit better is the integra. Cause of the damping function. That's it. As I said it's very versatile which gives me enough free space to play around with crossing.
 
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Deleted member 2944

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Guys hello. I've been fiddling around with electronic cross for some years now, using it as the main cross over network for my DIY 4 way speaker project that includes , CORAL 15" WOOFERS , JBL 8"MIDBASS, CORAL 4"DOME MID , CORAL 1,3"DOME TWEETER.
The cross I used is a old SANSUI CD 10, electronic crossover network. As I said it's old from 1975. But it's very versatile.
Can be set for 2 types of 2 way , 2 types of 3way , 1 type of 4 way. Very nice studio performance from those days. Only thing I had to do was to exchange all 110 bipolar electrolytics to new ones and a pair of transistors.
I'm very pleased with it and I can assure you that I can do almost anything I want to , in the analog domain, except for time delay.
It also supports a wide selection of cross freqs and a variable slope 12db-18db , a bass boost with a separate cross freq for each way , almost anything. User adjusts whatever he wants to and tweaking is full of fan.
It can still be found for sale at the Japanese auction site , or even ebay.
I would strongly suggest it. Take a look.
An extremely limited capability unit, relative to what we have available nowadays.
A nostalgic unit though.

Dave.
 

A800

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Looks sexy.
I want to touch it.
 

jomark911

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Some parts of the collection.
 

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vuMjo6PjV3ibqv1uA2wrnB7_EZBrKbL2/ This should be mandatory reading to anyone planning to use this or similar devices.
Nah, not really. That's just a simplistic overview that concludes "textbook" electrical filters will not yield proper acoustic responses in real-world systems. Duh.

Moving a crossover system from speaker-level to line-level doesn't remove any of the necessary frequency shaping, roll-off control, etc, etc, etc, etc, tasks from the speaker designers to-do list.

Dave.
 

dukanvadet

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Nah, not really. That's just a simplistic overview that concludes "textbook" electrical filters will not yield proper acoustic responses in real-world systems. Duh.

Moving a crossover system from speaker-level to line-level doesn't remove any of the necessary frequency shaping, roll-off control, etc, etc, etc, etc, tasks from the speaker designers to-do list.

Dave.
Yup. Thats the point. I agree with everything your saying except for "nah, not really". Thats important to understand before you consider using anything like this. If its allready obvious to you thats great but i dont think it is for everyone.
 

andreasmaaan

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Personally, I find it hard to imagine a use case for this device, aside perhaps from an infinite baffle speaker or a 3-way with extremely linear midrange and high-frequency drivers and whose woofer has such high voice coil inductance that its roll-off happens to compensate nicely for baffle step. But otherwise, what trio of drivers in a box measures so flat that textbook XO filters at fixed frequencies get them to anywhere near the kind of performance that you'd be hoping for if you're willing to outlay nearly $2k on just the crossover?
 
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