Subwoofers sound like speakers

Kit Ta

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Oct 5, 2019
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Hi guys, I have Yamaha mixer, QSC 2450 amps, and Yorkville VTC-NS9 subwoofers. When I hook them up they sound like the regular speakers, not subwoofers, a friend of mine said I need a crossover, so what is crossover use for? Please help. Thanks
 
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A crossover filters out unwanted frequencies from reaching a given speaker. A subwoofer only reproduces bass, so typically could be 'crossed over' at, say 130Hz. This means that, in this example, all frequencies above 130Hz are removed. Similarly a tweeter cannot reproduce bass; indeed it would be destroyed by these low frequencies. To give another random example, all frequencies below, say, 1500Hz are removed and the tweeter thus reproduces high frequencies only. In between would be the midrange - this is a 'band pass' filter, removing all frequencies below 130Hz and above 1500Hz in this example. The frequency spectrum is thus divided up into different bands and fed to the relevant loudspeakers' amplifiers.
For any given speaker, a range of crossover frequencies are possible, however all speakers have their own limits regarding the frequency range they can reliably and accurately reproduce. If you search for the speaker(s) you have, there will be a recommended crossover frequency, and the crossover you need to obtain should be set to the frequency recommended. Whatever this frequency turns out to be, the main speakers should be fed all frequencies above this crossover point.
For subwoofers the filter is known as a 'low pass' as it only allows these frequencies through, blocking higher frequencies. For a tweeter it is a 'high pass' filter, so that the potentially damaging lower frequencies are blocked. Systems can have many crossover points; the simplest system having just one.
I have made some very, very broad generalisations here, however a little Googling should soon make things clearer! Good luck.