MFB Bandpass Filter Audio Sub-Woofer Circuit

Diagram
www.engineersgarage.com

The loudspeakers are devices which are designed to reproduce the actual voice
according to the voice frequency signals fed into it. The audible voice spectrum
stretches from around 20Hz to 20 KHz and the interesting thing is that there is not
loudspeaker design which can reproduce all these frequencies with the same effect.
Hence there are different kinds of loudspeakers like Tweeters, Mid-range Speakers,
Sub-Woofers and Woofers which can reproduce the voice in their own particular
frequency bands only.

In an audio play back device, the entire audio signals are separated into different
bands and applied to the corresponding type of loudspeaker. The Tweeters are
normally fed with frequencies above 5 kHz, Mid-range speakers are fed with
frequencies in the range of 300 Hz to 5 kHz, and Sub-Woofers with 300 Hz to 40 Hz
and Woofers are fed with frequencies below 40 Hz.

Since the musical sound normally falls around the maximum frequency of 5 to 8 KHz,
Tweeters are not so common in audio devices. For driving the Mid-range Speakers a
high pass filter of cut-in frequency around 300 Hz is enough and for Woofers a Low
pass filter with cut-off frequency around 40 Hz will suffice. Bass-beats of the songs
appear in the Sub-Woofer range and a Band-pass filter can be used to separate out
these frequencies from the entire audio signals. This project discusses the design and
implementation of a Multiple Feed Back (MFB) Band pass filter for Sub-Woofer
frequencies.
Fig. 1: Multiple Feed Back (MFB) Band Pass Filter for Sub-Woofer Frequencies Circuit
on Breadboard

The MFB filters are very commonly used in circuits due to the fact that they provide
reasonable performance with the simplest circuit. They can be designed to obtain
narrow bandwidth and high gain. They are suitable for the design of Band Pass
filterssince the bandwidth, mid-band frequency can be easily adjusted or varied.
These circuits has an amplifier with more than one feedback and hence the name. The
circuit diagram of a MFB band pass circuit using a single resistor and capacitor
feedback is given below;
Fig. 2: Circuit Diagram of MFB Band Pass Circuit with Single Resistor & Capacitor
Feedback

The gain of the circuit depends on the value of R1 and R2 and the Q factor (mid-band
frequency divided by bandwidth) and bandwidth depends on the values of R2 and C.
The value of R3 affects only the mid-band frequency selection and hence it can be
used to vary the mid-band frequency without changing the gain or Q factor.

The equations relating the value of the components to the gain, Q factor, bandwidth
and mid-band frequency are given below;

To start design this circuit select the required value for the mid-band frequency (Fm),
mid-band gain (Am), Bandwidth (B) or Q factor (Q) and capacitor value (C) and the
following equations which are derived from the above will help to calculate the value of
other components;

For extracting the Sub-Woofer frequencies from the music the band pass filter here is
designed for an ‘Fm’ of 70 Hz, Q of 15 and Am of 100 with a capacitor value ‘C’ of
0.1uF. The values of R1, R2 and R3 can be calculated as given below;

Hence for a MFB band pass filter with Fm = 70, Q = 15, Am = 100, one can use the
standard value components as given below;

Since this filter will be used to drive a loudspeaker a buffer circuit needs to be added at
the output of the MBF band pass filter which will drive the loudspeaker without affecting
the filter characteristics. The buffer can also be made easily with another op-amp. The
complete circuit is given below;

Fig. 3: Circuit Diagram of MBF Band Pass Filter with Buffer Circuit
The filters like the above can be considered as a ‘Tuned Amplifier’ which will amplify
only a particular frequency range. The R1 and R3 attenuate the input signal and from
which the desired frequency is only amplified out. In this project the circuit amplifies
only the Sub-Woofer frequencies from the music input.

The audio input is fed from a PC and the filtered audio in this experiment is observed
with a normal headset, since the headset speakers are designed for the good quality
reproduction of both the high frequency sound and low frequency bass. Play some
music in the PC which has lot of bass like the one used in the demonstration of this
circuit and the output from the circuit will be the bass-beats only.

Fig. 4: Circuit Diagram of MFB Bandpass Filter Audio Sub-Woofer with PC and
Headset