Active Speaker Choice


Active speakers utilizing DSP seem to take the room out of the equation, so now I'm now considering going this route, at least at my present residence.

Lots of buzz arounds names like: Dutch & Dutch, ATC SMC 40A, Kii Three, Buchardt A700. 

Most are pretty big bucks, so pricewise, I would prefer to lean more towards the Bucharts' but I'm open a bit (used?)

Most are difficult to demo, so please, if you have comments or recommendation these or any other active speaker you have heard or can recommend, it would greatly be appreciated.


high-amp
verdantaudio. Boy, do those SA's remind me a lot of the Buchardt's. Even down to the specs, Ram tweaks (Buchartd's Master Tunings), and country of origin!

totem395, thanks so much for this, I will definitely check it out.


If you can’t do many room treatments you should look into narrow dispersion speakers and sit near or mid field, you will hear the speaker more than the room. In a room with a lot of hard surfaces, windows, etc.. like you describe you’ll get better sound quality with narrow, look at the dynaudio XD line they’re fairly narrow and the XD60 is full range.
djones51, thanks for the heads-up on the XD60. This is one of the few lines that I can demo somewhat locally.
It must be said for actives, the main objective will always be linear phase and reduced distortion-not just the "all-in-one" package solution.  Actives are not a speaker "rack system" that creates the illusion of a better solution by reducing choices. 

Active reduces losses and errors in the system.  A proper active set up images better and resolves details better than a passive one with the same exact amps and drivers.  I demo this at nearly every hi fi show. 

The effects of copper well discussed within the cable arguments that never end.  It always strikes me why this does not seem to transfer over to the gigantic chunk of copper you know nothing about and cannot change sitting between amp and driver and how it affects the amp/driver sound.  We argue about the speaker wire hung on the back end of the passive crossover, but the crossover itself has such massive coils of copper passing audio!   We wouldn't consider such a thing if we could see it, I'm convinced.  Processing after the amplifier at speaker level will seem so "did we really do that?"  one day.  

Brad