I own a pair of Audio Pro A4-14 (with mods and updates) and I am very familiar with Meridian and B&O powered speakers. At the time of release for each and every model that I was exposed to, I thought there was something to it, granted the Meridian and B&O speakers were always connected as part of the companies' systems. I heard a pair of ATC powered speakers, and I was surprised at the dynamics and SPL they were providing. I still prefer non powered speakers with awesome ss amplification.
Active Speakers Don't Sound Better
I just wanted to settle a debate that has often raged in A’gon about active vs. passive speakers with my own first hand experience. I’ve recently had the chance to complete a 3-way active center channel to match my 2-way passive speakers.
I can absolutely say that the active nature of the speaker did not make it sound better. Or worse. It has merged perfectly with my side speakers.
What I can say is that it was much easier to achieve all of the technical design parameters I had in mind and that the speakers have better off-axis dispersion as a result, so it is measurably slightly better than if I had done this as a passive center. Can I hear it? I don’t think so. I think it sounds the same.
From an absolute point of view, I could have probably achieved similar results with a passive speaker, but at the cost of many more crossover stages and components. It was super easy to implement LR4 filters with the appropriate time delays, while if I had done this passively it would require not just the extra filter parts but all pass filters as well. A major growth in part counts and crossover complexity I would never have attempted. So it's not like the active crossover did any single thing I couldn't do passively, but putting it all together was so much easier using DSP that it made it worthwhile.
I can also state that as a builder it was such a positive experience that I may very well be done with making passive speakers from now on.
All the best,
Erik
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- 72 posts total
- 72 posts total