active speakers, Paradise? Trouble in paradise?

Bob,

In order to disperse evenly and widelythe driver needs to be smaller in diameter than the wavelength of the sound being produced. In order to produce upper midrange frequencies at decent volumes (for farfield applications) it requires the use of a small but extremely robust (expensive) driver (a good size for upper midrange is 3 inch and as I have mentioned a 6 inch mid/bass is simply too large without beaming).

Less expensive to build speakers that beam

This is kind of a "dirty secret" among speaker makers - they know darn well what they are doing when they X-over a 1 inch tweeter with a 6 inch mid/bass woofer at 3 to 4 KHz. Basically they are compromising on sound quality at farfield positions in order to cheaply achieve teh necessary SPL levels (as most 1" tweeters can't cope with the needed SPL levels at 2 KHz).

Life itself is an education... and it's an education on steroids around here with the pros that knows.... Thanks.

I'm still gonna amble on over to the big music store as I'm seeking a keyboard too... and check out the various active uints on display to be sure or get my toes wet. Although I feel given my preffs and budget Actives working well and improving upon what I have already is going to be quite the expensive task.. ala the ATC 50 on here now for $9K! And it might not be suitable at the 8ft + > 16ft distances.

The truly immense thing for me... and now others, is more defined info on the topic sits in the archives, and that's always a boon to anyone as the bulk of info here isn't on particular current models but on applications and technology behind the active loudspeakers camp. Well, more than I've read so far personally. It's been enlightening... and I may yet stumble onto something that floats my boat for an upscale office rig... which ain't gonna take a whole lot to do. Should be fun though and reduce the sense of rush and immediacy I have with desiring a bigger change in my main outfit.

thanks much... naturally, any thoughts or experiences ongoing in the active x over powered loudspeaker (pro - studio) sphere are way more than welcome to further the data here.

You guys are all great thanks.

For several months, I used a pair of Focal Twin 6 actives in my living room while my home studio was being built. They sounded wonderful. So much so, that I was sad when I moved them out of there. They need a bit of break in time, but man they sound nice.

Focal Twin 6 are another active design that are extremely good & very popular - I agree that they would be very good as a home stereo and would make a great surround setup too.

Shadorne:

Regarding dispersion and beaming problems that normally compromised speakers have, what is your take on a design like Adam Tensor- if you are familiar with them- they don't use dome tweeters-?

As a side note, I had my mind set on a Beta, but after reading several posts I am now leaning toward the smaller standmount Delta, since I already have a couple of JL subs which can be positioned to a more appropriate location than the left corner speaker would. But, what happens if I have a processor like a Denon a1 to manage the bass split between speakers and subwoofers in regard to phase problems like in passive crossover speakers?

Thank you