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"Polyamping" A Look to the Future or Fancy Fad?

In a recent quest for information regarding DIY speaker designs, I was referred to the Linkwitz Orion Project. These speakers employ active crossovers and it is suggested to give each driver its own, separate amplification (actually one for each woofer and one for the tweet/mid - three per speaker). Linkwitz recommends the ATI AT6012, a twelve channel, six zone amp (60W/ch). I am not sure about the merits of the ATI amp but, regardless of amp, does anyone think this will be a "growing" design. I mean I have heard the benefits of biamping and have heard tell of triamping but, in this case, "sextamping"? Octamping would seem to be next. All accounts say that the Orions sound fabulous. Perhaps I am just behind the curve. What so you learned folks think of this direction in audio?
4yanx
gregm
3,405 posts
 
Experience leads me to second Sean's note about power hungry lower frequencies. In my much lesser system than Sean's, the ~85-22Hz area (8"x8 woofers) are powered by ~500-600W at the nominal impedance rating -- and not quite adequately so, IMO.
I'm bi-amping, BTW, and thoroughly recommend multiamp configs...
twl
3,251 posts
 
Actively driving the speaker with one amp per driver, is the oldest method of electronic sound reproduction known. It started with the earliest sound systems with mono amp and single driver speaker. As such, it can hardly be considered either a "look to the future" or "fancy fad". However it can be considered a valid method of sound reproduction, that eliminates some of the problems associated with the "newer" multi-way designs, especially passive crossovers. In a single-driver system such as mine, the driver is "actively" or "directly" driven because there is no passive crossover. In multi-way systems that are multi-amped, they are "actively" driven for each driver, and again there is no passive crossover. While I agree with many of the statements made by other posters above, I feel that elimination of the passive crossover is the strongest reason for active multi-amping.
jwmazur
191 posts
 
Don't dismiss Seigfreid Linkwitz. He is an innovator when it comes to speaker designs. He just happens to explore the more simplistic or overlooked approaches.
thsalmon
348 posts
 
Linnies have been "Aktiv" for quite some time. You should try it.
abex
322 posts
 
At present I am having a set of modified NEARs built using an outboard active XO.It was suggested to me months ago and it is the last frontier for getting all you can out of the amps.More efficient to use dedicated amps for the drivers.

It just makes plain sense to me.It also gives you the dexterity to set the seakers to room variations.That in itself makes it a useful.You can trim the ranges in order to get the drivers to blend better with the room dimensions and accoustics.

JMO
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