Behringer Crossover for Maggies vs Bryston

I am thinking of going lower-spec on the amp and getting the XVR-1... And after trying to set it up myself, paying someone locally who really knows they are doing to finish it off and continue to work on setting it up for a day.

For the low end, I really think high-power low-cost D is the way to go (i.e., Rotel) and then go crazy high-end on the top side. Our family had some other big purchases recently so the project is on hold for at least 3 - 4 months, but I recently put a kilowatt amp on my 3.6s and now am very excited to get some more power through it somehow!

People talk about amp-matching on active crossover setups, I have to do more listening and testing to see if a low-cost D will match well with a very high-quality 2nd amp.

Another way to look at all of this - from a $ perspective (not from a time perspective) get the Behringer now - figure it all out, tweak it, get the extra amps, etc., but then upgrade the crossover a few years later.

In that sense - how the Behringer gets you started at such a low cost - it is awesome. Remember, though, Marchand has some decently priced modules, albeit with far far far less tweakability.

One of the best crossovers around is the Behringer DCX 2496. It does all crossovers, parametric EQ, delay, and lots of other things in the digital domain, so they are as perfect as they can be. If you are starting with a digital signal anyway, it can accept digital input and serves as 3 stereo DAC's in addtion to crossover. (Unfortunately, there are no digital outs.) The interface and flexibility are fantastic. The quality is tolerable, particularly the analog outputs could be better, but are useable as delivered. The steepest built-in crossover is the Linkwitz-Riley 48dB/octave, but some people make that even steeper by using tacked on parametric EQ's. There are many modifications available, and many active discussion threads, particularly over at DIYAudio. The all-analog behringer equipment is rather pedestrian by comparison, reasonably flexible but their analog circuitry is typically mediocre, and as a rule never get the cheapest Behringer model.

If you value your system's sound AT ALL, and decide to go with ANYTHING from Behringer; count on having the unit modified. ie: (http://www.asi-tek.com/behringer2.html)