I see your tower speakers use a 2.5-way crossover. What does that mean?
This is a question we get from time to time, and it might sound a little strange: Especially when you see two crossover points in the spec sheet. Before we explain how our 2.5-way crossover works, and why we chose this route, we will first explain how crossovers work in general.
What is a crossover?
A crossover is a component inside the speaker that splits up the signal into different frequency bands. Our bookshelves – which is a 2-way design – split the signal in two: The high frequencies to the tweeter, and the low frequencies to the woofer. Some speakers use a 3-way design, and the signal is then split into three bands: High, mid, and low.
Our 2.5-way design is a little different: The tweeter obviously gets the high signal (from 1500Hz and up), which you’d expect. The two woofers above and below the tweeter play from 1500Hz and down to “0”. The two lowest woofers only play from “0” and up to 120Hz (100Hz for Tower S), and their goal is to extend the low-frequency capabilities, as well as increase overall sensitivity and headroom.
Why 2.5-way?
We chose a 2.5-way instead of a 3-way design based on a few different factors: With our waveguided tweeter, we’re able to use a much lower crossover point than normal, which resulted in excellent off-axis response which can sometimes be a drawback of not having a dedicated midrange. After rigorous testing, we found that a 2.5-way design offered more benefits than a 3-way design, especially in the dynamics department.