X-over for adding a sub to speakers

[Unobtainium]

Following up on that great read about sound engineers and recording,etc, I was wondering if there are any high quality x-overs to mate a sub to your speakers, not LFE. I used to just take pre-outs and feed subs the signal of the front left and right channels. The end result was good, but a proper x-over would be great.
This is what I'm thinking:
Front left- studio 100 crossed with a sub-12
Front right-same
Center-same
Rears-studio 100's full range until the coding includes more bass requiring subs.
LFE-2-FW-18's

Richard Hardesty used to talk about a similar set-up being optimal.
He used Vandersteens with his speakers and an Energy 18" for LFE.
He had 5 subs(he thought a powered center too much for dialog)
Please discuss the merits of this, and any equipment to help pull it off.

[LordoftheRings]

Originally Posted by Unobtainium

Following up on that great read about sound engineers and recording,etc, I was wondering if there are any high quality x-overs to mate a sub to your speakers, not LFE. I used to just take pre-outs and feed subs the signal of the front left and right channels. The end result was good, but a proper x-over would be great.
This is what I'm thinking:
Front left- studio 100 crossed with a sub-12
Front right-same
Center-same
Rears-studio 100's full range until the coding includes more bass requiring subs.
LFE-2-FW-18's

Richard Hardesty used to talk about a similar set-up being optimal.
He used Vandersteens with his speakers and an Energy 18" for LFE.
He had 5 subs(he thought a powered center too much for dialog)
Please discuss the merits of this, and any equipment to help pull it off.

I have all my Widescreen Review magazines with Richard's articles on Subwoofers, Crossovers, Slopes, Phase, and all the other great settings for best experience with your Subs' integration!

* If you have them too, you are lucky to have such great information and best tips!

In these articles of tremendous beneficial help, Richard is mentioning the types of crossovers with gentle slopes that best integrate with Phase Coherent loudspeakers. The Vandersteens being such speakers. Also the Dunlavy speakers.

Your Paradigm Studio Reference 100 loudspeakers are NOT phase coherent,
but I truly believe that with a system like Audyssey MultEQ XT or XT32, you'll be able to blend your subwoofer(s) best with the rest of your system; all your other loudspeakers!

>>> As for separate external x-overs, I wouldn't know what to suggest.
Because your Paradigm speakers are designed for their specific internal x-overs. And those can certainly play Full Range as well! And they do love a lot of power running through them. ...Like Emotiva XPA-2 or even better, the XPA-1 monoblocks!

You have some great speakers and subs, and they deserve great electronics, great matching gear!

Sorry that I couldn't provide more help to you!

Regards,
Bob

[prerich]

What you would really want in a situation like this are speakers that are truly active bi-ampable, and use active crossovers such as the DCX-2496 or the DBX Driverack. These units when used to their maximum, can phase align speakers, subsonic filters, PEQ and GEQ's, crossover slopes from 1st to 4th order and 6 to 48db slopes and more! The Driverack has the old school DBX subharmonic synth included in it also! This would be the real way to do this (speakers inwhich you can totally bypass the internal crossovers).

I'm using a DCX-2496 and a FBQ2496 for my subs. I'm crossing my Snells over at 60hz (but they are not active biampable), and bypassing the interal crossover for my SW-380 subs. However I'm using the DCX2496 for my sub crossover and the FBQ2496 handles my PEQ for the bass. My bass has never been this tight, "quick", and moving! There's a BFD fourm at the HomeTheaterShack site, you can probrably find ideals there. Big Daddy has experience with multiple subs also, he will definately chime in sooner or later.