
- •Contents
- •Acknowledgments
- •Preface
- •What a Crossover Does
- •Why a Crossover Is Necessary
- •Beaming and Lobing
- •Passive Crossovers
- •Active Crossover Applications
- •Bi-Amping and Bi-Wiring
- •Loudspeaker Cables
- •The Advantages and Disadvantages of Active Crossovers
- •The Advantages of Active Crossovers
- •Some Illusory Advantages of Active Crossovers
- •The Disadvantages of Active Crossovers
- •The Next Step in Hi-Fi
- •Active Crossover Systems
- •Matching Crossovers and Loudspeakers
- •A Modest Proposal: Popularising Active Crossovers
- •Multi-Way Connectors
- •Subjectivism
- •Sealed-Box Loudspeakers
- •Reflex (Ported) Loudspeakers
- •Auxiliary Bass Radiator (ABR) Loudspeakers
- •Transmission Line Loudspeakers
- •Horn Loudspeakers
- •Electrostatic Loudspeakers
- •Ribbon Loudspeakers
- •Electromagnetic Planar Loudspeakers
- •Air-Motion Transformers
- •Plasma Arc Loudspeakers
- •The Rotary Woofer
- •MTM Tweeter-Mid Configurations (d’Appolito)
- •Vertical Line Arrays
- •Line Array Amplitude Tapering
- •Line Array Frequency Tapering
- •CBT Line Arrays
- •Diffraction
- •Sound Absorption in Air
- •Modulation Distortion
- •Drive Unit Distortion
- •Doppler Distortion
- •Further Reading on Loudspeaker Design
- •General Crossover Requirements
- •1 Adequate Flatness of Summed Amplitude/Frequency Response On-Axis
- •2 Sufficiently Steep Roll-Off Slopes Between the Filter Outputs
- •3 Acceptable Polar Response
- •4 Acceptable Phase Response
- •5 Acceptable Group Delay Behaviour
- •Further Requirements for Active Crossovers
- •1 Negligible Extra Noise
- •2 Negligible Impairment of System Headroom
- •3 Negligible Extra Distortion
- •4 Negligible Impairment of Frequency Response
- •5 Negligible Impairment of Reliability
- •Linear Phase
- •Minimum Phase
- •Absolute Phase
- •Phase Perception
- •Target Functions
- •All-Pole and Non-All-Pole Crossovers
- •Symmetric and Asymmetric Crossovers
- •Allpass and Constant-Power Crossovers
- •Constant-Voltage Crossovers
- •First-Order Crossovers
- •First-Order Solen Split Crossover
- •First-Order Crossovers: 3-Way
- •Second-Order Crossovers
- •Second-Order Butterworth Crossover
- •Second-Order Linkwitz-Riley Crossover
- •Second-Order Bessel Crossover
- •Second-Order 1.0 dB-Chebyshev Crossover
- •Third-Order Crossovers
- •Third-Order Butterworth Crossover
- •Third-Order Linkwitz-Riley Crossover
- •Third-Order Bessel Crossover
- •Third-Order 1.0 dB-Chebyshev Crossover
- •Fourth-Order Crossovers
- •Fourth-Order Butterworth Crossover
- •Fourth-Order Linkwitz-Riley Crossover
- •Fourth-Order Bessel Crossover
- •Fourth-Order 1.0 dB-Chebyshev Crossover
- •Fourth-Order Linear-Phase Crossover
- •Fourth-Order Gaussian Crossover
- •Fourth-Order Legendre Crossover
- •Higher-Order Crossovers
- •Determining Frequency Offsets
- •Filler-Driver Crossovers
- •The Duelund Crossover
- •Crossover Topology
- •Crossover Conclusions
- •Elliptical Filter Crossovers
- •Neville Thiele MethodTM (NTM) Crossovers
- •Subtractive Crossovers
- •First-Order Subtractive Crossovers
- •Second-Order Butterworth Subtractive Crossovers
- •Third-Order Butterworth Subtractive Crossovers
- •Fourth-Order Butterworth Subtractive Crossovers
- •Subtractive Crossovers With Time Delays
- •Performing the Subtraction
- •Active Filters
- •Lowpass Filters
- •Highpass Filters
- •Bandpass Filters
- •Notch Filters
- •Allpass Filters
- •All-Stop Filters
- •Brickwall Filters
- •The Order of a Filter
- •Filter Cutoff Frequencies and Characteristic Frequencies
- •First-Order Filters
- •Second-Order and Higher-Order Filters
- •Filter Characteristics
- •Amplitude Peaking and Q
- •Butterworth Filters
- •Linkwitz-Riley Filters
- •Bessel Filters
- •Chebyshev Filters
- •1 dB-Chebyshev Lowpass Filter
- •3 dB-Chebyshev Lowpass Filter
- •Higher-Order Filters
- •Butterworth Filters up to 8th-Order
- •Linkwitz-Riley Filters up to 8th-Order
- •Bessel Filters up to 8th-Order
- •Chebyshev Filters up to 8th-Order
- •More Complex Filters—Adding Zeros
- •Inverse Chebyshev Filters (Chebyshev Type II)
- •Elliptical Filters (Cauer Filters)
- •Some Lesser-Known Filter Characteristics
- •Transitional Filters
- •Linear-Phase Filters
- •Gaussian Filters
- •Legendre-Papoulis Filters
- •Laguerre Filters
- •Synchronous Filters
- •Other Filter Characteristics
- •Designing Real Filters
- •Component Sensitivity
- •First-Order Lowpass Filters
- •Second-Order Filters
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass Filters
- •Sallen & Key Lowpass Filter Components
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass: Unity Gain
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass Unity Gain: Component Sensitivity
- •Filter Frequency Scaling
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass: Equal Capacitor
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass Equal-C: Component Sensitivity
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Butterworth Lowpass: Defined Gains
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass: Non-Equal Resistors
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Lowpass: Optimisation
- •Sallen & Key 3rd-Order Lowpass: Two Stages
- •Sallen & Key 3rd-Order Lowpass: Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Lowpass: Two Stages
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Lowpass: Single-Stage Butterworth
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Lowpass: Single-Stage Linkwitz-Riley
- •Sallen & Key 5th-Order Lowpass: Three Stages
- •Sallen & Key 5th-Order Lowpass: Two Stages
- •Sallen & Key 5th-Order Lowpass: Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key 6th-Order Lowpass: Three Stages
- •Sallen & Key 6th-Order Lowpass: Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key Lowpass: Input Impedance
- •Linkwitz-Riley Lowpass With Sallen & Key Filters: Loading Effects
- •Lowpass Filters With Attenuation
- •Bandwidth Definition Filters
- •Bandwidth Definition: Butterworth Versus Bessel
- •Variable-Frequency Lowpass Filters: Sallen & Key
- •First-Order Highpass Filters
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Filters
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Highpass Filters
- •Sallen & Key Highpass Filter Components
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Highpass: Unity Gain
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Highpass: Equal Resistors
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Butterworth Highpass: Defined Gains
- •Sallen & Key 2nd-Order Highpass: Non-Equal Capacitors
- •Sallen & Key 3rd-Order Highpass: Two Stages
- •Sallen & Key 3rd-Order Highpass in a Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Highpass: Two Stages
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Highpass: Butterworth in a Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Highpass: Linkwitz-Riley in a Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key 4th-Order Highpass: Single-Stage With Other Filter Characteristics
- •Sallen & Key 5th-Order Highpass: Three Stages
- •Sallen & Key 5th-Order Butterworth Filter: Two Stages
- •Sallen & Key 5th-Order Highpass: Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key 6th-Order Highpass: Three Stages
- •Sallen & Key 6th-Order Highpass: Single Stage
- •Sallen & Key Highpass: Input Impedance
- •Bandwidth Definition Filters
- •Bandwidth Definition: Subsonic Filters
- •Bandwidth Definition: Combined Ultrasonic and Subsonic Filters
- •Variable-Frequency Highpass Filters: Sallen & Key
- •Designing Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback 2nd-Order Lowpass Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback 2nd-Order Highpass Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback 3rd-Order Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback 3rd-Order Lowpass Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback 3rd-Order Highpass Filters
- •Biquad Filters
- •Akerberg-Mossberg Lowpass Filter
- •Akerberg-Mossberg Highpass Filters
- •Tow-Thomas Biquad Lowpass and Bandpass Filter
- •Tow-Thomas Biquad Notch and Allpass Responses
- •Tow-Thomas Biquad Highpass Filter
- •State-Variable Filters
- •Variable-Frequency Filters: State-Variable 2nd Order
- •Variable-Frequency Filters: State-Variable 4th-Order
- •Variable-Frequency Filters: Other Orders of State-Variable
- •Other Filters
- •Aspects of Filter Performance: Noise and Distortion
- •Distortion in Active Filters
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: Looking for DAF
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: 2nd-Order Lowpass
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: 2nd-Order Highpass
- •Mixed Capacitors in Low-Distortion 2nd-Order Sallen & Key Filters
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: 3rd-Order Lowpass Single Stage
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: 3rd-Order Highpass Single Stage
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: 4th-Order Lowpass Single Stage
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: 4th-Order Highpass Single Stage
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: Simulations
- •Distortion in Sallen & Key Filters: Capacitor Conclusions
- •Distortion in Multiple-Feedback Filters: 2nd-Order Lowpass
- •Distortion in Multiple-Feedback Filters: 2nd-Order Highpass
- •Distortion in Tow-Thomas Filters: 2nd-Order Lowpass
- •Distortion in Tow-Thomas Filters: 2nd-Order Highpass
- •Noise in Active Filters
- •Noise and Bandwidth
- •Noise in Sallen & Key Filters: 2nd-Order Lowpass
- •Noise in Sallen & Key Filters: 2nd-Order Highpass
- •Noise in Sallen & Key Filters: 3rd-Order Lowpass Single Stage
- •Noise in Sallen & Key Filters: 3rd-Order Highpass Single Stage
- •Noise in Sallen & Key Filters: 4th-Order Lowpass Single Stage
- •Noise in Sallen & Key Filters: 4th-Order Highpass Single Stage
- •Noise in Multiple-Feedback Filters: 2nd-Order Lowpass
- •Noise in Multiple-Feedback Filters: 2nd-Order Highpass
- •Noise in Tow-Thomas Filters
- •Multiple-Feedback Bandpass Filters
- •High-Q Bandpass Filters
- •Notch Filters
- •The Twin-T Notch Filter
- •The 1-Bandpass Notch Filter
- •The Bainter Notch Filter
- •Bainter Notch Filter Design
- •Bainter Notch Filter Example
- •An Elliptical Filter Using a Bainter Highpass Notch
- •The Bridged-Differentiator Notch Filter
- •Boctor Notch Filters
- •Other Notch Filters
- •Simulating Notch Filters
- •The Requirement for Delay Compensation
- •Calculating the Required Delays
- •Signal Summation
- •Physical Methods of Delay Compensation
- •Delay Filter Technology
- •Sample Crossover and Delay Filter Specification
- •Allpass Filters in General
- •First-Order Allpass Filters
- •Distortion and Noise in 1st-Order Allpass Filters
- •Cascaded 1st-Order Allpass Filters
- •Second-Order Allpass Filters
- •Distortion and Noise in 2nd-Order Allpass Filters
- •Third-Order Allpass Filters
- •Distortion and Noise in 3rd-Order Allpass Filters
- •Higher-Order Allpass Filters
- •Delay Lines for Subtractive Crossovers
- •Variable Allpass Time Delays
- •Lowpass Filters for Time Delays
- •The Need for Equalisation
- •What Equalisation Can and Can’t Do
- •Loudspeaker Equalisation
- •1 Drive Unit Equalisation
- •3 Bass Response Extension
- •4 Diffraction Compensation Equalisation
- •5 Room Interaction Correction
- •Equalisation Circuits
- •HF-Cut and LF-Boost Equaliser
- •Combined HF-Boost and HF-Cut Equaliser
- •Adjustable Peak/Dip Equalisers: Fixed Frequency and Low Q
- •Adjustable Peak/Dip Equalisers With High Q
- •Parametric Equalisers
- •The Bridged-T Equaliser
- •The Biquad Equaliser
- •Capacitance Multiplication for the Biquad Equaliser
- •Equalisers With Non-Standard Slopes
- •Equalisers With −3 dB/Octave Slopes
- •Equalisers With −3 dB/Octave Slopes Over Limited Range
- •Equalisers With −4.5 dB/Octave Slopes
- •Equalisers With Other Slopes
- •Equalisation by Filter Frequency Offset
- •Equalisation by Adjusting All Filter Parameters
- •Component Values
- •Resistors
- •Through-Hole Resistors
- •Surface-Mount Resistors
- •Resistors: Values and Tolerances
- •Resistor Value Distributions
- •Obtaining Arbitrary Resistance Values
- •Other Resistor Combinations
- •Resistor Noise: Johnson and Excess Noise
- •Resistor Non-Linearity
- •Capacitors: Values and Tolerances
- •Obtaining Arbitrary Capacitance Values
- •Capacitor Shortcomings
- •Non-Electrolytic Capacitor Non-Linearity
- •Electrolytic Capacitor Non-Linearity
- •Active Devices for Active Crossovers
- •Opamp Types
- •Opamp Properties: Noise
- •Opamp Properties: Slew Rate
- •Opamp Properties: Common-Mode Range
- •Opamp Properties: Input Offset Voltage
- •Opamp Properties: Bias Current
- •Opamp Properties: Cost
- •Opamp Properties: Internal Distortion
- •Opamp Properties: Slew Rate Limiting Distortion
- •Opamp Properties: Distortion Due to Loading
- •Opamp Properties: Common-Mode Distortion
- •Opamps Surveyed
- •The TL072 Opamp
- •The NE5532 and 5534 Opamps
- •The 5532 With Shunt Feedback
- •5532 Output Loading in Shunt-Feedback Mode
- •The 5532 With Series Feedback
- •Common-Mode Distortion in the 5532
- •Reducing 5532 Distortion by Output Stage Biasing
- •Which 5532?
- •The 5534 Opamp
- •The LM4562 Opamp
- •Common-Mode Distortion in the LM4562
- •The LME49990 Opamp
- •Common-Mode Distortion in the LME49990
- •The AD797 Opamp
- •Common-Mode Distortion in the AD797
- •The OP27 Opamp
- •Opamp Selection
- •Crossover Features
- •Input Level Controls
- •Subsonic Filters
- •Ultrasonic Filters
- •Output Level Trims
- •Output Mute Switches, Output Phase-Reverse Switches
- •Control Protection
- •Features Usually Absent
- •Metering
- •Relay Output Muting
- •Switchable Crossover Modes
- •Noise, Headroom, and Internal Levels
- •Circuit Noise and Low-Impedance Design
- •Using Raised Internal Levels
- •Placing the Output Attenuator
- •Gain Structures
- •Noise Gain
- •Active Gain Controls
- •Filter Order in the Signal Path
- •Output Level Controls
- •Mute Switches
- •Phase-Invert Switches
- •Distributed Peak Detection
- •Power Amplifier Considerations
- •Subwoofer Applications
- •Subwoofer Technologies
- •Sealed-Box (Infinite Baffle) Subwoofers
- •Reflex (Ported) Subwoofers
- •Auxiliary Bass Radiator (ABR) Subwoofers
- •Transmission Line Subwoofers
- •Bandpass Subwoofers
- •Isobaric Subwoofers
- •Dipole Subwoofers
- •Horn-Loaded Subwoofers
- •Subwoofer Drive Units
- •Hi-Fi Subwoofers
- •Home Entertainment Subwoofers
- •Low-Level Inputs (Unbalanced)
- •Low-Level Inputs (Balanced)
- •High-Level Inputs
- •High-Level Outputs
- •Mono Summing
- •LFE Input
- •Level Control
- •Crossover In/Out Switch
- •Crossover Frequency Control (Lowpass Filter)
- •Highpass Subsonic Filter
- •Phase Switch (Normal/Inverted)
- •Variable Phase Control
- •Signal Activation Out of Standby
- •Home Entertainment Crossovers
- •Fixed Frequency
- •Variable Frequency
- •Multiple Variable
- •Power Amplifiers for Home Entertainment Subwoofers
- •Subwoofer Integration
- •Sound-Reinforcement Subwoofers
- •Line or Area Arrays
- •Cardioid Subwoofer Arrays
- •Aux-Fed Subwoofers
- •Automotive Audio Subwoofers
- •Motional Feedback Loudspeakers
- •History
- •Feedback of Position
- •Feedback of Velocity
- •Feedback of Acceleration
- •Other MFB Speakers
- •Published Projects
- •Conclusions
- •External Signal Levels
- •Internal Signal Levels
- •Input Amplifier Functions
- •Unbalanced Inputs
- •Balanced Interconnections
- •The Advantages of Balanced Interconnections
- •The Disadvantages of Balanced Interconnections
- •Balanced Cables and Interference
- •Balanced Connectors
- •Balanced Signal Levels
- •Electronic vs Transformer Balanced Inputs
- •Common-Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR)
- •The Basic Electronic Balanced Input
- •Common-Mode Rejection Ratio: Opamp Gain
- •Common-Mode Rejection Ratio: Opamp Frequency Response
- •Common-Mode Rejection Ratio: Opamp CMRR
- •Common-Mode Rejection Ratio: Amplifier Component Mismatches
- •A Practical Balanced Input
- •Variations on the Balanced Input Stage
- •Combined Unbalanced and Balanced Inputs
- •The Superbal Input
- •Switched-Gain Balanced Inputs
- •Variable-Gain Balanced Inputs
- •The Self Variable-Gain Balanced Input
- •High Input Impedance Balanced Inputs
- •The Instrumentation Amplifier
- •Instrumentation Amplifier Applications
- •The Instrumentation Amplifier With 4x Gain
- •The Instrumentation Amplifier at Unity Gain
- •Transformer Balanced Inputs
- •Input Overvoltage Protection
- •Noise and Balanced Inputs
- •Low-Noise Balanced Inputs
- •Low-Noise Balanced Inputs in Real Life
- •Ultra-Low-Noise Balanced Inputs
- •Unbalanced Outputs
- •Zero-Impedance Outputs
- •Ground-Cancelling Outputs
- •Balanced Outputs
- •Transformer Balanced Outputs
- •Output Transformer Frequency Response
- •Transformer Distortion
- •Reducing Transformer Distortion
- •Opamp Supply Rail Voltages
- •Designing a ±15 V Supply
- •Designing a ±17 V Supply
- •Using Variable-Voltage Regulators
- •Improving Ripple Performance
- •Dual Supplies From a Single Winding
- •Mutual Shutdown Circuitry
- •Power Supplies for Discrete Circuitry
- •Design Principles
- •Example Crossover Specification
- •The Gain Structure
- •Resistor Selection
- •Capacitor Selection
- •The Balanced Line Input Stage
- •The Bandwidth Definition Filter
- •The HF Path: 3 kHz Linkwitz-Riley Highpass Filter
- •The HF Path: Time-Delay Compensation
- •The MID Path: Topology
- •The MID Path: 400 Hz Linkwitz-Riley Highpass Filter
- •The MID Path: 3 kHz Linkwitz-Riley Lowpass Filter
- •The MID Path: Time-Delay Compensation
- •The LF Path: 400 Hz Linkwitz-Riley Lowpass Filter
- •The LF Path: No Time-Delay Compensation
- •Output Attenuators and Level Trim Controls
- •Balanced Outputs
- •Crossover Programming
- •Noise Analysis: Input Circuitry
- •Noise Analysis: HF Path
- •Noise Analysis: MID Path
- •Noise Analysis: LF Path
- •Improving the Noise Performance: The MID Path
- •Improving the Noise Performance: The Input Circuitry
- •The Noise Performance: Comparisons With Power Amplifier Noise
- •Conclusion
- •Index

356 Time-Delay Filters
Figure 13.6: The general form of an allpass filter. The path bypassing
T(s) must be inverted and have half the gain.
frequency. It will be either a simple RC 1st-order filter or a 2nd-order bandpass filter; its output is amplified by two and subtracted from the original signal.
It is important to be aware that allpass filters do not inherently have an absolutely flat frequency response. Due to the finite gain-bandwidth-product of the opamps and components that do not have mathematically exact values, the magnitude response is likely to show small deviations from perfect flatness. These deviations are however usually very small and of no consequence compared with speaker unit tolerances.
First-Order Allpass Filters
Figure 13.7 shows the two versions of the basic 1st-order allpass filter. This deceptively simple circuit is analogous to a 1st-order RC filter, and so gives a slow phase change as frequency changes.
The first version in Figure 13.7a is non-inverting at low frequencies; in other words the phase-shift is 0°.As the frequency rises, the phase-shift increases until it approaches 180° (inverting) at high frequencies, as shown in Figure 13.10. This changing phase-shift is equivalent to a delay. The sharpeyed reader will note that in Figure 13.10 the phase has actually reached 180° and is clearly headed for more. This plot was produced by simulating the circuit with a model of a real opamp, rather than just evaluating a mathematical equation, and the extra phase-shift has accumulated because of the finite open-loop bandwidth of that opamp. This is what will happen when you build real crossovers, but with any modern opamp the effects are negligible. Looking at Figure 13.10 and Figure 13.11 we can see that the phase is still changing quite quickly in the 10 kHz–20 kHz range (from −135° to −158°, i.e. 21°) when the delay has fallen to a quarter of its maximum value. This is not going to give us a minimum-phase crossover.
When the positions of the resistor and capacitor are exchanged, the same phase change is obtained but phase inverted, so the second version in Figure 13.7b inverts at low frequencies but has an in-phase output at high frequencies.An allpass filter gives twice the maximum phase-shift of an ordinary filter of the same order. The non-inverting version of Figure 13.7a could also be called the RC version,
as the resistor comes before the capacitor, forming a lowpass filter. This means the common-mode voltage will fall with frequency. The inverting version of Figure 13.7b is correspondingly the CR version, and the capacitor-resistor arm now acts as a highpass filter.

Time-Delay Filters 357
Figure 13.7: Two versions of the 1st-order allpass filter: (a) non-inverting or RC type (b) inverting or CR type.
A1st-order allpass filter has only one parameter to set: the RC time-constant; the delightfully simple calculation for the low-frequency delay is shown in Equation 13.4. There is no such thing as the Q of a 1st-order allpass. The output of an allpass filter does not have a “turnover” as such.According to some authors its operation is defined by the frequency at which the group delay has fallen to 1/√2 of its low frequency value; while this corresponds in a way to “−3 dB” for an amplitude-frequency filter, it has no real significance in itself.Amore useful description is the frequency f90 at which the phase-shift reaches 90°, halfway between the extremes of 0° and 180°, because it is derived very easily from the circuit values, as in Equation 13.5. Note that these are not the same frequencies.
Delay = 2RC |
13.4 |
|||
f90 = |
1 |
|
13.5 |
|
2π RC |
||||
|
|
You will recall that in our example loudspeaker, the tweeter signal had to be delayed by 80 usec. The resulting RC allpass circuit is shown in Figure 13.8.
If you trustingly feed a positive-going step waveform into Figure 13.8, what emerges is an immediate negative spike followed by a long slow approach to the steady input voltage, as shown in Figure 13.9.“Doesn’t look much like a delay to me!” I hear you cry, which was pretty much what I cried when I first tried this experiment.
The reason for this unhelpful-looking output is that allpass filters do not give a constant time delay with frequency, and this one is no exception. Figure 13.11 shows how as the frequency goes up the group delay is indeed 80 usec initially, but begins to decrease early as the frequency increases.
Figure 13.10 gives the phase response for comparison. The delay is down by 10% at 2.5 kHz and down to 50% at 9.3 kHz, slowly approaching zero above 100 kHz. This is clearly not much use for equalising the delay in the HF path. Since there is only one variable—the time-constant R3, C1—the only way to keep the delay constant to higher frequencies would be to reduce its value, which would make the filter useless for implementing the required delay compensation.
The fall-off in delay with frequency explains Figure 13.9; the high frequencies that make up the edge of the input step function are hardly delayed at all, and since they are subject to a 180° phase-shift, give the immediate inverted spike. The lower frequencies are delayed but get through eventually,

358 Time-Delay Filters
Figure 13.8: A non-inverting RC 1st-order allpass filter designed for a group delay of 80 usec.
Figure 13.9: The disconcerting response of the 80 usec 1st-order allpass filter to a 1 V step input.
causing the slow rise. The mistake we have made is applying a stimulus waveform with a full frequency range.
Figure 13.12 shows the rather more convincing result obtained if the 1 V step input is band-limited before it is applied to our allpass filter. The step input (Trace 1) has been put through a 4th-order Bessel lowpass filter with a −3 dB frequency of1.2 kHz, the Bessel characteristic being chosen to prevent overshoot in the filtered waveform; a Butterworth filter would have given a bit of overshoot and confused matters. The Bessel filter output is the leisurely-rising waveform of Trace 2. When this goes through the allpass filter it emerges as Trace 3 with almost exactly the same shape, but delayed by 80 usec. That looks a bit more like a delay, eh?
If you look closely at Figure 13.12 you will see that the output of the allpass filter does show a very small amount of undershoot before it rises. This could have been further suppressed by reducing the

Figure 13.10: The phase response of the 80 usec 1st-order RC-type allpass filter. The phase-shift is still changing at the top of the audio spectrum.
Figure 13.11: The group delay response of the 1st-order 80 usec allpass filter. The delay is down by 10% at 2.5 kHz and 50% at 9.3 kHz.

360 Time-Delay Filters
Figure 13.12: The 1 V step input is Trace 1; putting it through a 4th-order Bessel-Thomson filter gives Trace 2, and the 80 usec 1st-order allpass filter delays it to give Trace 3.
cutoff frequency of the lowpass filter.You will also note that the output of the 4th-order Bessel lowpass filter, Trace 2, has already been delayed a good deal compared with the step input Trace 1, in fact far more than by the simple 1st-order allpass filter, because the Bessel is 4th-order. The use of Bessel lowpass filters to delay signals is examined further at the end of this chapter.
The circuit in Figure 13.7a must be non-inverting at low frequencies, because when C1 is effectively an open circuit, we get a non-inverting stage because of the direct connection to the non-inverting input. Likewise, in Figure 13.7b, when C1 is effectively open circuit, the configuration is clearly a unity-gain inverter.
The input impedance of the RC version in Figure 13.8 is 2.7 kΩ at 10 Hz, falling to 646 Ω at 1 kHz, whereafter it remains flat (it happens to be 666 Ω at 100 Hz, but I don’t think you should try to read too much into that). The equivalent CR version (with all component values the same) has an input impedance that is flat at 1 kΩ from 10 Hz to 1 kHz.Above that the impedance rises slowly until it levels off at 1.8 kΩ around 30 kHz. It is pretty clear that the CR version will be an easier load for the preceding stage, especially at high audio frequencies, and this will have its effect on the distortion performance of that stage. There is more on that in the later section on the performance of 3rd-order allpass filters.
Figure 13.11 shows an elegantly sinuous curve, quite unlike the tidy straight-line approximation roll-offs we are used to when we look at filter amplitude responses. These latter of course are plotted logarithmically with dB on the vertical axis, whereas here we have group delay time as a linear vertical axis. This is how it is normally done; dB are useful for measuring amplitude, not least because they