This is probably a simple question for most...As my front stage, I have a 2-way component set (Jl XR), which utilizes Jl 2-way passive crossovers. They are hooked up to the front channels of a Jl 300/4, with the rear speakers being run by the other two channels.
I understand the function of the crossover; my question pertains to the power going to the woofer and tweeter. Does the crossover split the power (75w) between the woofer and the tweeter, meaning each see 37.5 watts? Is there another ratio determined by the crossover (ie: 80%/20%) that distributes power accordingly? I'm wondering how much power the components are receiving.
That's not a simple question, but a good one. Most of the difference will be in the music source. Lower tones take more power to produce than higher tones, so that in itself skews the ratio heavily toward the woofers. But that part of it is done in the recording and mixing of the music, with the final result of the recording heavily favoring signal strength (and thus output) in the woofer's range.
Another thing to look at is the octave range that each of the drivers will handle: the woofer will see approx. 6 octaves as opposed to the tweeter, which will handle only about 3 octaves. With the woofer handling, say, from 75 Hz up to 5k Hz, it will encompass a 6 octave range. The tweeter takes care of only three octaves from 5k to 20k Hz. That alone is a big difference in percentage of source material, and the power output ratio would be skewed toward the woofers again because of that.
The crossover for the tweeters often have some sort of resistor padding to attenuate their output so it doesn't come out too loud as compared to the woofer output....directly because the highest frequencies take very little power to reproduce, and tweeters are more efficient than woofers. All in all, you may never hear the tweeters with more than about 10 watts actually applied (... I'm not entirely sure of that number...but it'll be around that...).
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Now it makes sense. Thanks for the explanation, stevdart.
... and it's actually more like 20 to 1 or even greater, meaning if the woofer is utilizing 100 watts the tweeter will only see about 5 watts (above the crossover frequency). Tweeter power ratings are given two ways and can be confusing. One way is their "system power" rating. If you see a tweeter rated at "100 watts" or more, that is a system power rating meaning that when used with the supplied crossover (or when crossed over above the manufacturer's recomended point) the tweeter can be used in a system delivering up to "100 watts" per channel. The tweeter itself can probably only handle about 10 watts directly. The other (better) rating system is when the tweetr includes its direct power rating, which will usually be in the 10 to 30 watt range. This distinction becomes very important when bi-amping a system.
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