Crossover losses

Does anyone know what kind of losses going through a passive crossover network can result in when you power a pair of p.a speakers compared to running the same p.a speakers biamped and not using the internal crossover network at all? I mean how many decibels spl output is it roughly, as a guess? Or is it not even noticeable?

Yeah it is a real question I thought it was about 3-10% loss due to crossover networks I guess maybe in real worl spl output terms it's not noticeable, I should of asked in percent not decibels. I read a lot and depending on who writes or types as we do online it's supposedly about 3% loss. Someone mentioned 40% loss but then someone else said if the crossover network was responsible for that kind of loss the crossover network would be red hot.

I was just curious really as to what losses there are and moreover what are the real benefits to running biamped apart from being able to power the low and high drivers seperately. I guess it's better to  use a seperate amp that you can turn down or turn up than to use eq to adjust level of the low or high frequency drivers.

If you are powering it with suitable amplification the output isn't going to be 'less', the passive x/o will eat some, but your still going to be getting the same OP

I just wondered really, I know running mid/highs active to tune filter slopes between the low and high drivers and tune the sound to be better I knew all that anyway but I was just sat here and came across an article about passive crossover networks and thought I wonder if you do lose any power. But anyway thanks.

:)

I´d say that the real problem with passives isn´t the power loss, but the anomalies that they can produce, ie phase shifts, notches or peaks - due to the fact that no electronic component is ever "pure", so will introduce some unexpected response. And heat over time will change the value, so could make things worse.

But again - for a couple of cabs on sticks, etc. it may not be worth worrying about - or be that noticeable. The ear is a funny thing - and can actually compensate for these anomalies without you  realising it. Look at psychoacoustics.

You need to actually measure the response of the cab with some software & mic.