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In Reply to: RE: Have you switched to active? posted by audiogremlin on December 22, 2009 at 15:31:47
And returned a year later. Active speakers limit your choices in ways I cannot tolerate. Putting amps in a highly vibration-prone environment is not exactly ideal either.
rw
Follow Ups:
Firstly, what about putting the passive XOs into that same "vibration-prone environment" (ie. the box)??
I run my 3-Series Maggies, 3-way active. See pic (the box behind the panel contains 3 amp modules, a 3-way (mono) active XO and 4 PSes):
So active speakers don't have to imply the amps are inside the speaker cabinet ... in, as you say, a highly vibration-prone environment.
That being said, I was surprised to hear a sonic improvement when I placed the amp/XO box on a slab of stone kitchen-bench offcut, resting on 12 squash balls (a DIY air-isolation platform). Resolution was greatly improved - so I assume what must've been happening before was that vibrations were passing into the slab floor from the spikes under the Maggie stands ... and were then passing up into the amp chassis which was resting on the carpet ... and causing sonic damage! :-((
Isolating the amp/XO box with the air isolation platform stopped these slab vibrations from getting to the electronics. :-))
Regards,
Andy
Powered speakers with built in amps. Yours is merely a tri-amped system where one has the ability to provide adequate isolation and select the amplifiers you wish to use over time. Active speakers offer neither of those advantages. :)
rw
Mine are active speakers! :-)) Active speakers have the amps directly attached to the drivers with no passive components "in the way". My amps are external ... Maggies have no "box"! :-)) Makers of active speakers could do this too but for marketing reasons, they choose to internalise everything.
Regards,
Andy
I'll pass on the intractable designs which make up the majority of them.
rw
The vibration concerns can easily be worked around and are essentially unfounded. That is audiophile nonsense.
How do you "easily work around vibration" of the active devices in the amplifiers housed within an active speaker?
rw
I don't need to get into vibration dampening. It works the same way inside a speaker as it does outside. Where we will disagree is what is audible and impacts the sound. I believe that this is a non issue if reasonable care has been taken in the design stage- so do major companies that make these speakers. Dynaudio, Mackie, Genelec, AVI, ATC etc, etc.
The idea that a solid state amplifier needs to be completely isolated from vibration to perform at spec is ridiculous. Add it to the long list of horse-shit that only audiophiles buy into.
To each their own.
So antagonistic! I expected that kind of response.
rw
Not sure what I am being accused of being agnostic on? I am saying vibration in the context that your concerned with is a non-issue in reality. I do recognize that in audiofooldom it is a huge problem that costs big bucks to solve.
There are several real advantages to having short leads and the drivers directly coupled to the amplifiers. There are also several advantages to having the XO at the line level. And there are huge advantages to not having to pay for "boxes" that add enormous manufacturing costs.
Better performance in theory all around. The sound is subjective.
While I wasn't discussing religion, perhaps you are. :)
rw
Well I am agnostic- so that may have been cause for the confusion!
Still- not sure why you have any interest in this thread? You question vibration- which I still contend is irrelevant in context to the discussion and something that always gets shot down early when these "active" threads surface here. Then you state your dislike for "intractable designs" which is fine- however you have stated one irrelevant objection and another personal one. Neither of which are an reason to not utilize this technology for someone else.
Engineering amplification into the design stage of the speaker is a smart and efficient thing to do. Having ultra steep crossover slopes which only can be done at the line level is smart design choice. Dedicating an amp and directly coupling it to the driver is a good thing. These all add up to superior design and if execution is the same- superior performance.
The above are facts- backed up by their respected sciences.
Because I think the realization of the *superiority* of the active concept rarely meets the hype. Looks great on paper and arguably works just dandy for computer speakers - as illustrated here:
rw
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