Citronic CX34 Active Crossover

A crossover is a device for separating the high frequencies from the low frequencies in a sound reinforcement system. Passive crossovers exist in speaker cabinets to split the high and low frequencies of an amplifier output and feed into the appropriate speaker components. This is ...A crossover is a device for separating the high frequencies from the low frequencies in a sound reinforcement system.

Passive crossovers exist in speaker cabinets to split the high and low frequencies of an amplifier output and feed into the appropriate speaker components. This is usually necessary in cabinets with separate low frequency and high frequency speaker components (woofers and tweeters) but can be inefficient because it operates on the high energy output from an amplifier and dissipates much energy as heat. Active crossovers operate before the amplifier(s) stage, where the signal is typically less than a Volt, affording accurate and efficient separation of the component frequencies.

Essentially, an active crossover splits each audio signal into 2, 3 or even 4 sets of frequencies, feeding each into a separate amplifier, which in turn powers a specific speaker component. This allows each speaker component to handle just the type of sound it produces most efficiently, avoiding wasting energy from the amplifier.