Jon_5912,
About wire/cable effects, I’m with you - a bit skeptical (and feeling bad about it). That said, I have to think that if there are effects, many would come from length, not to mention physical connections/interfaces (as tomthiel has found), so that eliminating or reducing them would be a good goal.
The end result of what you describe as you shorten the connection chain is the active speaker. And the end result of your other notion of taking it a step further and keeping the signal in the digital domain as far as possible are Meridian’s DSP speakers. It’s why I’ve owned a pair for two decades. My Thiels are a more recent enjoyment.
tomthiel,
I can’t help but think that going active was discussed/explored @ Thiel Audio. Could you comment? I can’t imagine what could have been produced were Meridian to use Thiel drivers....
It ruins all the mix and match tinkering that many audiophiles love, but I think you would get a lot more of the younger generation (not to mention spouses) interested in audiophile sound. And honestly get better sound in the end. KEF and Devialet are interesting current examples.
In my perfect world, there would be standardized module sizes similar in principle to rack mount 1U, 2U, etc. that manufacturers could produce and swap out to update as advances come.
About wire/cable effects, I’m with you - a bit skeptical (and feeling bad about it). That said, I have to think that if there are effects, many would come from length, not to mention physical connections/interfaces (as tomthiel has found), so that eliminating or reducing them would be a good goal.
The end result of what you describe as you shorten the connection chain is the active speaker. And the end result of your other notion of taking it a step further and keeping the signal in the digital domain as far as possible are Meridian’s DSP speakers. It’s why I’ve owned a pair for two decades. My Thiels are a more recent enjoyment.
tomthiel,
I can’t help but think that going active was discussed/explored @ Thiel Audio. Could you comment? I can’t imagine what could have been produced were Meridian to use Thiel drivers....
It ruins all the mix and match tinkering that many audiophiles love, but I think you would get a lot more of the younger generation (not to mention spouses) interested in audiophile sound. And honestly get better sound in the end. KEF and Devialet are interesting current examples.
In my perfect world, there would be standardized module sizes similar in principle to rack mount 1U, 2U, etc. that manufacturers could produce and swap out to update as advances come.