HIFI Speaker active crossovers ...

@mike_in_nc Wrote:

For an active crossover to make the most sense, the speaker needs power amps built in.

I don’t think so. The speakers below have an active crossover with no power amps built in and are excellent speakers. Also, my home audio speakers are actively bi-amped with no built in power amps and sound great. A speaker, with built in power amp(s), is called a powered speaker, active or passive is in reference to a speakers crossover topology. In my opinion, amps inside speakers is not a good idea because the amps are subject to all the vibrations and air pressure inside the speaker cabinet.😎

Mike

By far the most distortion in a speaker is caused by cabinet resonance and driver breakup, not because of passive crossover components.  

@ditusa -- According to the owner’s manual, those JBLs have no crossover at all and should be used with a specific external crossover and specific amplifiers.

An active xover divides the signal at line level. For it to work properly, the amplifiers need to be known quantities. I have never seen a speaker that contains the xover but not the amps, though theoretically they could exist. An active bi-amped speaker typically has two amps in it. What model is yours?

@mike_in_nc Wrote:

@ditusa -- According to the owner’s manual, those JBLs have no crossover at all and should be used with a specific external crossover and specific amplifiers.

The crossovers are in the Crown amp design for the M-2 speakers. One Crown® iTech 5000HD power amp for each speaker, or One Crown® iTech 3x3500HD power amp for two (2) speakers. From the M-2 manual:

Specifications

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What model is yours?

JBL model 4435 with JBL 5235 active crossover and JBL #52-5130 crossover cards design for 4430,4435 studio monitors. 😎

Mike

I agree, JBL is doing it the right way, rather than putting the xover and amps inside the speaker cabinets. Not the case with such active speakers as those made by Genelec, KEF, and so on.