Do active speakers interest you? Also, let's talk directivity


Hey all. Don't think I've ever made a thread here. This is a super interesting community for me. I'm an audio professional, a mastering engineer and music educator. I'm someone who differs from much of the pro community, in that I don't see a difference between "pro" systems and "high-end" systems. 

There is one way they often differ, and that is in terms of directivity. Home systems are more frequently omni, while and studio or live sound requires directivity.

This was definitely the case in the 70s, back when audiophiles still had parties :D 

It's very hard to set up a directional system to fill a large room evenly unless you use a line array.

But let's be honest. Aren't we mostly sitting and listening, and hoping for a good image? We aren't expecting every spot in a big room to sound exactly the same for every guest. Personally, my social life is 95% virtual now and I am generally listening in my mastering room. I have a high end system in every room in my house, but my wife uses the living room system more than me (and she has better taste in music, so it's nice to learn about some new artists when she decides to put something on from he collection).

Anyway, I'm designing an active system. Though the cabinet is not large, with a combination of Hoge's principles and active electronics, we will achieve accurate response through to 20hz.

The reason to choose an active crossover is very obvious. Sending power directly to each driver allows us to use a very low sensitivity woofer, which thus plays much deeper than expected. We are using a ported woofer and a sealed midrange/hi cabinet, which are not sold separately. An interesting feature is the the very low-crossed ribbon tweeter carrying all of the high midrange and treble

It's an 1800w system, aimed at both the professional and home market. I'm curious, does this sound interesting to anyone? We are intending to have a prototype ready by 2022, so it is a ways off.

Part of the directivity concept is also dealing with room issues. Cancelling the rear energy of the woofers can help. I am inspired by Bruno and Merjin (whatever  his name :P). a big part of our concept has to do with advanced acoustic materials, which I don't want to discuss too much, as I don't think anyone else has thought of it or connected with that maker, yet

Curious to hear people's thoughts!
128x128mehtayoungs
gosta  there are a  few streamers that are roon ready and have AES3 out which is what I use. The Lumin U1 mini,  Bel Canto eStream,  Simaudio mind all of which I tried. Of those I liked the Lumin the best but I still miss old school remote at least for volume control so my next streamer I'm auditioning is the Auralic Aries G1 which has the ability to pair with any remote using the RC 5 standard. 
I'm not as knowledgeable as most here and I know active doesn't mean all in the box but that's the way most are configured. There is a new company in Germany GGNTKT who uses an external box with the amps, crossovers and I believe DSP but not sure on that. I know the room is very important as well but I've found in my situation where I use my living room with the usual furniture, rugs, curtains , etc.. has worked very well. The D&D measured really nice from 200hz - 20klz from my listening position and I only needed to employ 3 filters below 200hz. I have 1 mode at 50hz I'm still working to get out but it's not a big deal just something to play with.  Other than that the D&D are the speakers that got me more into active as the sound is stunning. I wish you luck, you're approach is interesting and I look forward to seeing your products. 
Back to "the room":
My very old house has dense log walls 1 foot thick. The floor and ceiling are not parallel and neither are the walls.  Even with no room treatments or PEQ, a REW room sweep shows a nearly flat frequency response from highly directional floor standing speakers.  Nevertheless, speaker placement and bass management still matter. A lot. So I wonder how well some of the better active speaker systems support subwoofer integration. For example do they support both high level and .1/LFE connections? High pass filtering?  IMO, these issues are important, because subwoofers can play a big part in managing room effects. They also can play a big role in imaging, especially if your speakers need to be pulled away from the walls for the best soundstage (but not for optimal bass response).
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"... let’s talk directivity."

Imo really paying attention to directivity is part of getting "the basics" right. I applaud your emphasis on this typically under-appreciated aspect of loudspeaker design.

"To me, a soundsystem is an important health product..." 

Very interesting point of view. Imo music can provide wide access to transcendental experience in a world where we have rationalized away just about every other path which might offer such. 

"If you are familiar with Joachim Kriesler, he has a special method of dampening the rear energy of his speakers."

Who is Joachim Kriesler, and/or what speakers did he design?

Duke