[mresseguie]

Hi.

I see many XOs use air core inductors; many use steel laminate (steel core?) inductors.

Is one inductor better than the other? If one is clearly inferior, is it used because it is much cheaper?

My education continues....
 

[S Clark]

Yep, you've got it.  Air core is better but more expensive.  Iron core is cheaper in larger mH values. 

[G Georgopoulos]

Hi Micheal

there are also ferrite coils for crossovers, the cheapest.

air core is preferred because of no core magnetic  loss of energy in the core

due to large speaker currents iron laminated core is seldom used

cheers

[mresseguie]

Thanks!

Is there anything preventing an adventurous DIYer from replacing a ferrite core inductor with an air core inductor so long as they measure the same?

Michael

[G Georgopoulos]

no!, as long as the inductance is the same,you upgrade to air cores...

[TomS]

Thanks!

Is there anything preventing an adventurous DIYer from replacing a ferrite core inductor with an air core inductor so long as they measure the same?

Michael

You may also need to consider DCR as it is still part of the overall design, though usually very small, less than .5 ohms. If you change the inductor type and/or wire gauge, DCR will change. Higher values (more wire, smaller gauges) will also heat up more at higher power levels. Note that some cheapo freebie xo modelers might not consider DCR in their sims at all. Ultimately it might not even be enough to affect the final acoustic measurements though. It depends on the design.

[Freo-1]

What about copper foil coils?  Thought those were supposed to be excellent.

[DaveC113]

You may also need to consider DCR as it is still part of the overall design, though usually very small, less than .5 ohms. If you change the inductor type and/or wire gauge, DCR will change. Higher values (more wire, smaller gauges) will also heat up more at higher power levels. Note that some cheapo freebie xo modelers might not consider DCR in their sims at all. Ultimately it might not even be enough to affect the final acoustic measurements though. It depends on the design.

+1... If the inductor is large value you may need a heavy gauge air core inductor so the DCR doesn't go up so much. For large values it's possible a cored inductor would be a better choice.

[SJ David]

Hi.

I see many XOs use air core inductors; many use steel laminate (steel core?) inductors.

Is one inductor better than the other? If one is clearly inferior, is it used because it is much cheaper?

My education continues....

An air-coil can be best if you are willing to spend the extra cash and have the room in the speaker for some larger components.  For woofer designs you want to keep the component resistance as low as possible. In order to keep resistance low in an air coil, you have use a larger gauge wire. When you have low crossover points the amount of wire needed can get huge and with today's copper prices, this means much higher cost.  Using steel lamination allows for the use of less wire and it will keep the resistance down without having to use large gauge wire. Much less money involved but the use of a steel/ferrite/whatever core brings about compromises in terms of potentially higher distortion effects under higher power levels.

Air-core coils are preferred but the cost hit can be high for a what will likely be an incremental benefit in terms of sound. It's really about balancing the overall design.