Hybrid Audio Technologies Legatia SE - Manual (Page 47)

Legatia SE User’s Manual ©Hybrid Audio Technologies Page 47 of 73
Stage V Legatia L3x Three-Way Vertically-Biamplified Passive Crossover
NOTE: Although the Legatia L2x is listed in the Stage V Legatia series, it has multiple complimentary
uses for Stage VI Legatia SE products as well, given the complimentary crossover topology and use
of low-tolerance, asymmetrically-aligned componentry and lack of board-mounted equalization.
History
The Legatia L3x topology is loosely based off of the Legatia SE L2x crossover topology, which was
first released in October 2009. It’s no secret that Hybrid Audio Technologies highly recommends the
use of active crossovers that are set-up and adjusted by an industry specialist, such as a master
tuner, or a highly-qualified car audio shop installer (please read any number of White Papers on the
subject of passive crossovers on the www.hybrid-audio.com/downloads.htm web page). In some
cases, however, using active crossovers is not a viable option, so we designed and manufactured the
Legatia L3x to allow for easy Legatia SE installations, especially when multiple amplifier channels
and/or adequate active crossover processing was not available in the car audio installation.
The L3x can be used for virtually any Legatia SE three-way passively crossed-over systems, or used
in conjunction with other Hybrid Audio products to create a truly “bespoke” three-way system. The
Legatia L3x was launched in June 2011 and is the reference three-way passive crossover in Hybrid
Audio’s product category known collectively as the Legatia Series.
Key Issues in Passive Crossover Design
Before highlighting the L3x’s design attributes, there are certain key issues in passive crossover
design that the end-user should be aware of. For years, vocal manufacturers have coerced the
consumer into believing that capacitors, coils, and resistors are not only desirable, but are a
requirement. One notable “high-end” speaker manufacturer boasts that they spend “months” working
on crossover designs to ‘enhance’ their speakers. To ‘enhance’ means to add considerable filtering
to fix speaker response anomalies, aka poor speaker designs.
Our speaker design philosophy is to spend the time and resources necessary to make the speakers
exceptional in the design phase, and then use simpleton filtering to protect only for thermal protection
at resonance and provide the desired frequency response. It is our philosophy that the passive
crossover should not contain any level of equalization; none of our designs, in any series, use
crossovers that contain any form of equalization beyond simple tweeter attenuation. We believe in
making the speaker great, not trying to fix a poor speaker with filtering and attenuation. There's no
crossover in the world that can make a poorly-designed speaker sound good. This is why there’s a
relatively simpleton, high-quality crossover topology employed on the Legatia L3x crossover, with no
additional board-mounted equalization. And this is also why we implore you to use our world-class
speaker systems in concert with the L3x.
Attributes
The Legatia L3x is a bi-amplified three-way passive crossover for use with virtually any midrange,
midbass and tweeter pairing Hybrid Audio manufactures. The following are the L3x’s design
attributes: