Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused


17 of 23 speakers in my studio and home theater systems are internally powered. My studio system is all Genelec and sounds very accurate. I know the best new concert and studio speakers are internally powered there are great technical reasons to design a speaker and an amp synergistically, this concept is much more important to sound quality than the vibration systems we often buy. How can an audiophile justify a vibration system of any sort with this in mind.

128x128donavabdear

@donavabdear

Sorry I thought I answered this. I have not heard the Lyngdorf system so I don’t what to think about it. I assume it’s a good product (to have a business actually survive on it), but worth the money? No idea.

In your video he talks a lot about the "Story" behind the model he designed, so if you are a fan, it’s a cool video. If you don’t know anything about Lyngdorf, they’re inner tech, you won’t learn much from this. These kinds of videos are effective and convincing you when someone smart like this starts talking about bass that is "so fast, it’s like a real live concert". You tend to believe them but they actually say little about the support information that proves what they are saying is actually true.

John Meyer, Billy Woodman (ATC), Ilpo Martikainen (Genelec), Raymond Cooke (KEF), these folks knew what they are talking about and got straight to it.

By the way, I don't think John Meyer had the first active studio monitor, that was Genelec in the very early 80s.  I know as I was hauling their samples round Chicago in the early 80s.  No one wanted to hear it!   ATC was also building active systems around this time, locally in the UK,  mostly custom systems for specific buyers. The Meyer HD1 which had some success for sure, came a bit later, around 1990.  By this time Genelec and ATC was already installing large far field active monitors.   In the UK ATC had customers like the Astoria Boat owned by David Gilmour.  Genelec already well on its way in the monitor business in the US with an active small meter bridge monitors (1031) that completely dominated LA movie score mixing and music recording.  You still find people using them!  

@lonemountain I have a feeling you know some of those guys, I got to talk to John Meyer for 2 minuets, I was star struck, the best part was I got to also meet Roger Nichols at the same workshop, I think it was at an AES convention about '85' or so. I worked with many of the biggest stars in Hollywood but those were the guys who were really cool to me.

Steinway Lyngdorf make every component and their speakers together in exactly the way this thread has tried to describe the best practices of system synergy. The other side of that synergy is the fact that I already have a 15K$ Lyngdorf processor and I couldn't use it in the Steinway system, also I love my surround sound speakers and I couldn't use them in this system.

 

@donavabdear

What do you think about waiting until 2024 to consider getting the Steinway system? Get rid of the hum in your current system and maybe try a matching Anthem amp for your Paradigm speakers in 2023 and then see how you like it?

 

 

 

@kota1 I think I have 2 of these units to run my surround sound Paradigm Bs and 2x channels on my Paradigm CC. Paradigm and Anthem are the perfect example of a company that should really make speakers and amps and crossovers made for each other. I don't know if I have the Gen. 2 units.

I spent the first 10 years buried in engineering and didn’t get to hob knob with celebrities like some have on this topic :-) ... just a bit envious, though I have been star struck a few times since but back to the topic at hand.

If you don’t mind your amplifier and speaker adding something to the music that was not there in the recording, then by all means go with the Pass amp and passive speakers. You have to like what you are hearing. If you want a improved level of accuracy, then you need to get rid of the passive crossover. If you want the absolute lowest distortion possible in a given form factor, then you will need to ditch the Pass amplifier as that requires a tight integration of amplifier, driver, enclosure and more than a "hint" of advanced signal processing. If you want a single speaker that can adapt to your environment, your mood, or your music, more than just simple equalization and time alignment, than that is going to require an active speaker and that is what you will start to see more of. Active speakers are in their infancy.

Where it is going to get complicated is "deciding" where an active speaker ends, and where a room correction system begins.