I Was Considering Active, Then I Watched This ...

OK folks. Listen up. Here’s WHY active crossovers are so very much better than passive.

... Except when they are not.

A single loudspeaker driver is an inductor, and provides a frequency dependent,

the fact that there are multiple impedance peaks in most driver’s impedance curve should give us a clue that they are not electrically a simple inductors but an inductor, plus a resistor plus a resonant circuit.

But do please go on...

give you a frequency dependent impedance curve which looks like a Coney Island roller coaster. And that’s just for a tweeter high-pass circuit.

So, without taking this much further, almost any competent SS amplifier will handle these impedance issues. Please look at the simulated speaker load curve in any Stereophile amp review. Even for tubes, it’s not that bad.

Some speakers, like << PLUG!! >> Fritz << /PLUG! >> are naturally a lot better than others and will behave very very well even for modest tube gear.  Joseph Audio is another brand that seems to take impedance flattening seriously.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing that you cannot make an exceptional active crossover, but these arguments have for the most part been overcome by modern, low output impedance amps.

I’ve heard TERRIBLE fully active systems, and I’ve heard sublime traditional systems.



Best,


Erik

audiorusty - In the past, I purchase a microphone off Amazon and downloaded Room Perfect. I found the whole thing a little overwhelming.
I gave up and returned the mic. I need the DSP for Dummies edition!

Darko seems to like the Buchardts A500 bookshelf's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tctB_Dfmv4s

+1 erik_squires

If passive is an option and I could make them work in my room.
Fritz would be high on my list...Custom made floor standers?

@high-amp

I would love to see Fritz try a 2.5 or 3 way model with his drivers and materials, but I don’t want to put the poor guy on the hook for my dumb ass ideas. ;-)

Best,

Erik

People fixating on whether the amp is internal or external are emphasizing the wrong thing.  I'm sure there are a lot of cheap active speakers that aren't very reliable but that's because they're a cheaply made throwaway items.  You can get active speakers with external amplifiers.  If you want ATCs with external amps you can order them that way.  They just stick the amp in a separate box, no big deal.  Both ways are compromised with different strengths and weaknesses.  There are great examples of both and terrible examples of both and personal preference obviously comes into play.  The stuff people get hung up on.

When I hear people say that dsp can take room problems out of the equation I have to say something.  It can certainly help, but a really reverberant room isn't going to be solved by dsp.  An empty plaster room with wood floors in a brick house is going to have problems and dsp can't solve them.  It can ameliorate them to some degree but there's no way speakers can stop the echo.