# Broadband drivers with high-pass - ruined? **URL:** \ **Category:** Do It Yourself\ **Created:** [November 6, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943 "2020-11-06T19:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/1 "2020-11-06T19:29:09Z")
Since the very thing that makes a nearly full-range broadband driver so good at what it does is the lack of a crossover, would I be doing serious harm to its intended performance with a high-pass intended to avoid too much excursion from vinyl rumble, tracks with extremely loud sub-bass, etc? I’m considering MarkAudio drivers which need precise and clean amplification to avoid break-up and they need to be burned in for a long time with something light before playing any bass-rich sound through them, that’s what they state. So I guess this type of driver is quite fragile, should I high-pass it some to ensure it stays in shape for sure? Or would that be missing the point in terms of its intended usage? ---
**Author:** ![joma0711](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/joma0711/32/277666_2.png) [@joma0711](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/joma0711)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/2 "2020-11-06T22:09:24Z")
A high pass filter is quite common with vinyl, for precisely the reason of rumbley or slightly warped records 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/3 "2020-11-07T00:41:45Z")
Exactly, but does passively doing so (in the “crossover” if you can call it that, or rather just a filter) require a big sacrifice in terms of the “directness” that is natural to broadband drivers usually driven without passive components between the amp(s) and them? Or should it be an electronic crossover? ---
**Author:** ![joma0711](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/joma0711/32/277666_2.png) [@joma0711](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/joma0711)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/4 "2020-11-07T01:13:50Z")
line level passive filter between pre and power perhaps? (if all the impedances are known) ---
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/5 "2020-11-07T02:03:57Z")
DAC output impedance and amp input impedance in this case? I don’t want to high-pass the whole signal before the amp, I would also low-pass two bass drivers per speaker, loaded in a down-firing chamber underneath the broadband driver’s isolated enclosure. So all in all a full range speaker. ---
**Author:** ![joma0711](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/joma0711/32/277666_2.png) [@joma0711](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/joma0711)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/6 "2020-11-08T03:11:49Z")
you’d need huge coils across the woofers - they’d be at risk of saturation of any core they used too. There’s always this (though in your case it would need to be on the whole signal): > **[Project 99 - Subsonic Filter](https://sound-au.com/project99.htm)** ---
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/7 "2020-11-17T21:19:18Z")
So I guess I’ll handle the bass section actively. The nearly full-range drivers, I know they’re fragile, the manufacturer cautions to be careful with amplification… So I don’t want any vinyl rumbles through them. Is it a sin to use a cap for broadbands? Any way to do this… in a very stealthy way? Of course I want the signal as directly to the broadbands as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/8 "2020-11-19T01:56:11Z")
Is as much reserve for dynamics as possible best in a capacitor in this application, always? How are the trade-offs here in terms of literal loss or partly irrepairable phase error, etc, for reasonably priced capacitors of today? Aren’t they fairly good…? ---
**Author:** ![joma0711](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/joma0711/32/277666_2.png) [@joma0711](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/joma0711)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/9 "2020-11-19T02:35:29Z")
reserve not an issue here as not storing power 🙂 to put e.g. a capacitor in series with the full range driver, or an inductor across it, in either case it’s going to be a very high value (hundreds of uF? haven’t done the maths) which will be huge and hugely expensive for a nice film capacitor for example i would have thought, but also would present a highly reactive load to the amp, which may not like it. just a couple of random thoughts that came to mind… ---
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/10 "2020-11-20T22:54:22Z")
Ohhh damn, now I suddenly get it! It takes me a long while of being stupid and then some things click as common sense. Why would I let infrasonics into _any_ speaker driver? So I’ll just put a line-level subsonic filter before the amp. It’s just that simple… ---
**Author:** ![joma0711](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/joma0711/32/277666_2.png) [@joma0711](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/joma0711)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/11 "2020-11-20T23:27:42Z")
Yep that’s prob the best approach 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/broadband-drivers-with-high-pass-ruined/19943/12 "2020-11-21T03:10:02Z")
The problem is that if I aim to get this speaker onto market some day, the filter is separate from the speaker. Is there _any_ clever approach to integrate the filter into the speaker without ultra expension? Hmm. On the other hand, what’s wrong with a separated package if the concept works? These speakers require very precise conditions anyway…