Why not horns?

I would not say that digital filtering/processing can't sound good, because it can sound very good. I could probably be happy with that solution if I weren't so involved with analog.

Yes, the pro-audio guys are definitely not concerned with our silly audiophool-ishness. :-)

I can't argue with Atmosphere with regards to actives being a detail filter. There is definitely some loss there when compared to the sound using a passive xover at the speakers. However, there are also some benefits that may out weight this. I find that the increased control of the drivers when doing the active/biamp solution has increased the level of other details. I assume this is due to reduced IMD. This seems to be true for the mid-bass in my system where I do think the active has increased the detail in this range. The sound is much tighter, which sounds faster and better defined.

I agree about the benefits I find in active bi-amping. There's more there there.
And in my system things are pretty simple. All frequencies above 400 hz. are emitted by a single driver with no crossover whatsoever. So where is the digital problem introduced. Is it at the XO point? Or through EQing? Or just by being in the signal path? Is it digital conversion that you find corruptive?

Could it be that with audio ignorance is bliss? Maybe we are better off just trying to be satisfied rather than dissatisfied? That argument sounds good but the other side will say that it is from dissatisfaction that discovery and progress spring. And who can argue with that?

Curiosity drives me a little but vanity might be the real motivator. I want to get as much as I reasonably can. I guess the anguish part of all this comes into play when I start trying to rationalize what is reasonable. And that unspoken disagreement among us may be why we feud. Everybody has a different value system telling him what is reasonable.

Like many other things in audio, its all in the execution. But there is also an 'ignorance is bliss' thing that seems to play out. I've not heard Herman's system so it may well be me who is ignorant.

One objection I've always had to generic electronic crossovers is that they don't allow any tweaking of the curves to accommodate the sort of nuances that Duke has been mentioning. Almost any serious passive crossover you see has tweaks in it to manage idiosyncrasies of the particular drivers in use.

So Herman, why do you use the DSP? Are you bi-amplifying?

It would be like a buddy who has a 89 Honda Civic, and he says that he would never own a 2010 Audi A-4, because it simply is not as fun to drive as his Honda?

Those who enjoy Horn driven speakers, that are set-up,

and dialed in properly, know how well Music can be

Presented, with a proper Horn set-up.; Just as ANY Audi A-4

owner, will attest to the fact that their Audi, is in

another League, as far as "fun to drive".

Unless you get to try out, in Your home, what folks

are talking about, how can you speak negatively about them.

Speculation, is FAR! from Reality.

And one Horn speaker, does NOT reflect the sound of ALL of

the MANY different varieties available today.

IMHO nothing gets the mid-range, or the highs correct,

like Horns do.

With the awesome variety of "low frequency" drivers, one

can easily, put together, a deadly Audio combination.

The creativity of many of your set-ups, shows this fact.

I Love Music!

Ralph, yes, if you look at my system you see I have a big problem with time alignment. The woofers are 16 feet long and I decided that a digital delay was worth a try. First I tried a Behringer DCX2496 which was heavily modified to bypass the crappy opamp outputs and poor power supply and digital clock. The results were very good but that left me with another problem...how to deal with the analog input from my phono stage. The DCX does ADC but the mic preamp wasn't very good and bypassing lowered the input impedance too much.

That's when I discovered Pure Vinyl software. It does what the DCX does but using a much higher quality RME or any interface you choose. The cartridge feeds direct to the mic inputs on the RME. I was very skeptical at first, people who I really trust told me there was no way it would work...there wasn't enough resolution at the high end and you would just end up with square waves at higher frequencies...but I tried it and lo and behold it does work. I digitize the vinyl at 24/192, the PV does the RIAA EQ with a wide variety of curves, and I feed it back out at 24/192 to biamp. I haven't played with the plugins very much but you can fiddle with EQ curves and slopes and cutoff freqs and whatever else to your heart's content. PV has a built in 2 way with a variety of slopes and time alignment but with plugins not only can you tweak the crossovers in an almost endless number of ways but you can do it in a few seconds to see what you prefer.

AND, I have a 107 dB or so horns with SET amps and with the vinyl input turned up I have almost zero noise.

I know, the analog purists in the group dismiss this immediately. They've never heard it but are convinced it won't work well so they wouldn't even consider it. That's fine. After many years of chasing the dream I have a system that makes ME very happy. I used to sit and wonder what I could do to improve it, Now I just sit and enjoy the music.

Stop by anytime for a demo.