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Is Speaker design evolution stagnant

Based on what I read from speaker manufacturers, many use the same drivers but apply different crossover philosophies to achieve a particular sound.

My simplistic understanding is that while limiting the range of high or low signals , the remaining signal is corrupted ( phase inversions, roll off, etc.. ).

With today’s technology, why aren’t more speaker manufacturers using active crossovers to be connected after the preamp and sending exact spectrum signals separately to be amplified to each driver.  That would Eliminate all electronics inside the speaker cabinet except the drivers. Each driver gets fed only the signal that it works best at. No out of phase, half phase, quarter phase issues, no phase angle issues. 100% of the power goes to each driver without limiters to scale it back.  I think Bryston Model T Actives is designed this way ( don’t work for them and not pushing any product). Am I looking at it too simply? Do electronic crossover play havoc on signals the way inductors and capacitors do?

Some speaker manufacturers have gone half way with built in woofer amps ( Vaughn?)

Of course you would need a 3 channel amp for each side ( based on W/M/T config) or some variable of mono amps, whatever.



jacksky
lukaske
307 posts
 
Trelja,

look at: ilumnia.be , and you see somethings new. Last year The World-première in Eindhoven,The Netherlands. Made in Belgium. Such a sound,you never heard it before. I never heard such a open, full of detail, holographic speaker. And look to the design! Lukas

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bache's avatar
bache
521 posts
 
@kosst_amojan   absolute no necessary spend huge amount the money
  if you use 3 way electronic crossover. You can use 2 amps for bass
and midbass   non expensive class D or class AB , but for mids and high absolutely necessary use high end amps, and basically is much more
less money because you need  the high end amps much more less
power then use one high end amp  for all 3 drivers ,like convention
3 way speakers with passive crossover design. Actually you can use
2  big power class D and one low power SAT tube amp.  But is very
hard and almost impossible made right balance .  You have to use measuring microphone and computer program like RTA


jacksky OP
102 posts
 
it Seems to me that the flexibility and cost saving to use class D amps for the woofer and AB amps for mid/tweeter is another positive reason speaker manufacturers should be evolving toward targeted amplification of drivers.
so I guess the point Bache makes that once you do this you have to strike the righ balance - that is the weak link in the chain, or the hard part to achieve
lewinskih01
909 posts
 
Jack,

 A significant point Bache made and I neglected to mention is the need for measurement. This means a mic and learning how to do it. USB mics are easier to implent but not as good as the internally do analog to digital conversion with a clock that is different from your DAC. But an easy way to get going, which in my mind is most important.

Incremental improvements rather than radical changes. The learning curve for radical changes is even steeper than the upfront cost and likely to frustrate.
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