Here's why you should not run any tower speaker fullrange.
When you place the midbass driver in a small pod (.1 to 1.5 cu. ft. on average) the resonance becomes much higher and the speaker will actually begin to roll-off somewhere between 100 to 200 Hz. Its impossible to compress and rarify the rigid air mass in a tiny pod past a certain point. And, it takes an inordinate amount of power, not to mention placing the speaker under extreme mechanical and electrical stress, to try and drive a speaker below that bandwidth in which the speaker operates efficienctly. Also, as the resonance increases in a small pod the impedance coincidently rises resulting in less available amplifier power. In the same way the heavy mass, high compliance and high voice coil inductance of a woofer restricts it from reproducing high frequencies. Its wasteful and inefficient to dedicate power to a speaker in a bandwidth it can't contribute.
I can easily spot a system that is improperly tuned and therefore inefficient. The waste and compression is obvious.
So never crossover a tower speaker below the bandwidth that it comfortably reproduces. The unecessary power and excursion don't translate to audible benefits.
Crossed-over correctly, the speaker will be more dynamic, cleaner and project farther.
Larger tower speakers (Pro485 for example can highpass as low as 80 Hz. Smaller tower speakers may crossover as high as 125 Hz.
Don't always trust the nomenclature on the amplifier chassis. Some mistrack by as much as an octave. Each system should be set individually by ear and a few visual cues (excursion).
David
Earmark Marine
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