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DSP Active Crossover

I'm considering trying a DSP-based active crossover in my system. I did a search to see how much this has been discussed, and most of the posts are pretty old or about active speakers. DSP technology has changed a fair amount in the last 15-20 years.

My system is digital only, and my speakers are 3-way, so it's not particularly complicated. I've been looking at the Danville Signal dspNexux 2/8 which has two channel in (with digital inputs) and eight balanced analog outputs. This appears to be available with AKM AK4499 DACs which are fairly well regarded sigma-delta DACs (although I don't know how good their implementation is).

This product has a fairly rich DSP software environment for programming filters, time delays, etc., so it should be fairly straightforward to set it up to replace my passive crossovers. 

My biggest reservations are 1) giving up my Denafrips Terminator+ DAC and nice-quality DIY preamp, and 2) using the DAC's digital volume adjustments. 

This unit is about $3K (maybe a bit more with the AK4499 DACs), so isn't terribly expensive. From the limited research I've done, this unit appears to be higher sound quality than the miniDSP or DEQX boxes, but I could be wrong. All my amps have balanced inputs, so I'd prefer to use a unit with balanced outputs. 

So, what I'm wondering is if the benefits of active crossovers and dsp equalization will outweigh the lesser DAC quality (assuming this is the case) and lack of analog volume control (currently using a relay switched attenuator). I'm also wondering if there are other dsp audio processors that I should consider (digital inputs, at least six channels out, ideally with balanced outputs).

128x128jaytor
erik_squires
15,785 posts
 

Hi OP!

If your crossover is that simple then DSP should be fairly straightforward.  The only thing I could imagine you may wish to consider is driver polarity, delay and slopes.

The advantages of DSP include being able to set delay times digitally, and while it may not make a difference for your upper drivers, you can get fine grained phase and polarity matching with your subwoofers.  Also, 4th order slopes may give you better horizontal responses and power handling.

arion's avatar
arion
156 posts
 

I suggest you investigate the new Trinnov Nova. Is has up to 6 channels. We supply a Trinnov DSP unit with all our Apollo and Athena series speaker systems. They are excellent and very easy to set up. Check out some of the show reports about our systems. You will find them to be very positive. If the Trinnov DSP wasn’t good our systems wouldn’t sound good. We don’t sell just processors so I’m not trying to sell you anything.

arion's avatar
arion
156 posts
 

BTW, the Trinnov units all come with excellent room correction and use a very unique mic. They do an excellent job in the amplitude domain and more importantly in the time domain.

erik_squires
15,785 posts
 

Oh, now that I know @arion is a Trinnov vendor I'll be sure to butter them up whenever I can. 

😂

jaytor's avatar
jaytor OP
742 posts
 

@arion - Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The Trinnov Nova looks like an interesting unit, but is considerably more expensive than the Danville dspNexus, particularly for the six channels that I need. It also seems to be focused more on room correction than on crossover use, but I assume it can do both. 

Since I'm not sure if going active is my long term plan, I don't want to spend too much to give it a try. If I like the results, I might consider spending more in the future. 

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