Who actually uses digital speakers?

@phusis

I’m way past wanting to have multiple stacks of amps in my home so when I think of an active speaker, I think of an all in one unit that has built in everything.  The OP was not about active crossovers by the way, but active, digital speakers.  Meaning, the amp is built into the speaker and it has a digital input.

Yeah, I know what I could do with digital crossovers, I’m just not about to run a stereo amp, or more, per speaker here.

I’m currently planning a fully active 3-way center channel using a plate amplifier. The only thing that stops me from building it is the kitchen remodeling that I have to do first. 😁

Best,

Erik

Eric,

Active speaker systems with all discreet components certainly add a layer of complexity but also have tons of flexibility. We actually use different crossover points to dial in a system along with more conventional amplitude adjustments and time domain adjustments. These types of adjustments were impractical to do with passive and fixed systems.

Mike

Hey Mike / @arion

If you meant me, I’m not Eric.

Yeah, I have a pretty good idea of the magic you have to do in order to get your speakers dialed in. As a fan of active crossovers, DSP and AMTs and line sources I think you are in a very fun place to be.

Best,

Erik

Hey @arion  Since you like to jump in here and talk about your tech, I'm a little curious about something.  Your towers are relatively narrow baffles, especially when compared to the famous Infinity Reference.  Now, I don't want to set this up as an Arion vs. 30 year old technology, with questionable crossovers, but the IRS was (I believe) a dipole with a very wide baffle.

I'm curious if you've experimented with wide baffles and what you found as a result.

Among my interests is also wide baffle design speakers so that's why I'm asking.

Hi Erik, Sorry for misspelling your name, my bad.

 I try not to talk about my products specifically but use them as an example of what is possible. I think many people here are not always clear on the terminology related to DSP, ASP, active systems and room correction. It’s not our technology but it’s how we use it.

Baffle design is an interesting topic. As I’m sure you know the baffle design affects many things. Specifically to our dipole Apollo speakers we are mostly concerned with baffle width, baffle step and diffraction. The ideal width for our 120Hz line array is about 39”. In theory a flat 39” baffle will support our line array down to about 120Hz without baffle step or cancellation. That creates other problems along with being too wide for most home system. So we folded the baffle into an asymmetrical “U” shape. The inside of the back side is shaped to minimize cavity resonances. There a bit more to it but that’s the basics.

Mike