How good is the crossover in your loudspeakers?

Besides: my main intention was to point at the amp to driver interfacing, and how active wins out every day here. This is not debatable - indeed it’s a damn fact.

Wins in what specific technical and measurable ways?  Trade offs must be honestly identified and considered.  That is the only damn fact that matters.

Let’s say you buy two more power amps similar to the one you already own for a 3-way active setup, add a high quality DSP and some extra IC’s and power cables - you mean to tell me you’d now have trouble sleeping because of reliability issues?

Buy two more similar amps for 3 way setup, eh?  So say I have a quality 100 Watt amp, so buy two more that would add several hundred dollars of cost.  That is a hypothetical that makes no sense to support the case for all active.  Conflating potential reliability facts with trouble sleeping is an illogical comparison.

The more complexity is added, the more the entire system is at the mercy of the weakest link.  Cheap out on any item and the entire system does not achieve it's potential.  The core premise of active being cheaper, easier, better completely fails.  Pick any 2.  You can't have all 3.

Do your system as you see fit.  Personal preference extrapolated to claims based on broad generalization does not equate to a clear path for all to duplicate. 

There are two very different implementations of non-passively crossovered speakers. 

- Active-crossovered speakers like @phusis discussed necessitate each driver be individually amplified and controlled by a line-level crossover, which may be either digital (and usually implementing some sort of DSP), or analog (e g. Linkwitz). Although passive crossovers are eliminated, this type of setup is going to require intentionality and be more complex / costly than the same, passive-crossovered speakers. A pair of 3-way speakers will require at the very least three stereo amps or six monoblocks and one active crossover. 4-way will require 8 monoblocks, etc. The system will require a fair amount of design and setup work and the attendent skills. Reliability shouldn't be any more of an issue than with any other electronics. But an active-crossovered system will surely sound better than the same, passive-crossovered one - quite a bit better; but there probably are better choices for folks who value tried-and-true simplicity

- Active speakers are entirely different. They too feature individual driver amplification and a line level digital crossover and DSP (I'm not aware of any analog active speakers), but all the components are integrated in just two, conventional-looking speaker cabinets. All a person need do is plug them in the wall, connect a source, press play, and they're ready to go. All the component matching and integration has already been done and optimized by the manufacturer.

I auditioned Dutch&Dutch 8c, which fall in the latter category, and they sound fantastic. I think they retail for $18K (?), which is actually quite reasonable when you consider that they effectively replace amps, preamp, DAC, and sometimes streamer. These are perfect for folks who desire a streamlined system of the highest quality, but prize convenience over control.

These are only broad outlines. There are multiple other considerations, of which there are pros and cons of course 🙂

@devinplombier Wrote:

(I’m not aware of any analog active speakers), but all the components are integrated in just two, conventional-looking speaker cabinets. 

A bit of history for the fun of it, the first powered and analog active speakers were from JBL1960-64 Hartsfield and Paragon see here, here and here. 

Mike

I have the perfect crossovers. They don’t exist on my Lii audio F 15 open baffles. Music passes through them absolutely unchanged :-)

@ditusa 

Thank you Mike for the history lesson! 

I actually have a soft spot for consoles. The Paragon looks perfect. It has definitely been at the top of my bucket list but they're thin on the ground! 🙂