active monitors converted to passive - on ebay

[datay]

What does anyone make of this?:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=124473235619

PMC TwoTwo active monitors, the largest with 8" driver. I don't think I have seen this done before, on forums or sales sites. Givem the Sound on Sound review states: "these all-new designs are true active two-way monitors, employing a trio of Class-D amplifiers with on-board DSP to provide the crossovers, driver protection, room EQ and level calibration", then wouldn't that functionally just be stripped out? I admit to my electronics knowledge being what I have gleaned on this site, but how would fitting a new crossover, in passive fashion, drive the speaker as intended.

Really curious here. For the price a buyer could just buy one of the (already overpriced) PMC Twenty25i series, or whatever they're called now, and if you want a large driver, there are JBL models with 10" drivers (JBL 4307 eg, maybe being discontiinued) which are a studio/home crossover type, I think.

Thoughts?

 

[Mr Pig]

I'm not really interested in other people's weird, messed-about over-hyped shite.

Funny how modding stuff never seems to make it worse?

 

[Antifon]

I've seen something similar with one of the earlier range of PMC "pro" actives. I think what happens is that people buy them for PA use, overdrive them and one of the amp modules go "pop", and then they discover that one new module is more than both speakers are worth, so they bung in whatever crossover they can find - and then try to sell them as "custom" when the result doesn't sound very good.

 

[datay]

I've seen something similar with one of the earlier range of PMC "pro" actives. I think what happens is that people buy them for PA use, overdrive them and one of the amp modules go "pop", and then they discover that one new module is more than both speakers are worth, so they bung in whatever crossover they can find - and then try to sell them as "custom" when the result doesn't sound very good.

Thanks - that's as good an explanation as I could imagine, wonder if they'll get a buyer at that price.

I messaged them via ebay asking about if they could spare a moment to give the rationale for the changes but they haven't bothered to reply which perhaps says something in itself.

Lot of money for something the buyer would be unlikely to be able to resell.

 

[h.g.]

Lot of money for something the buyer would be unlikely to be able to resell.

It is fairly common for the kind of person that modifies expensive hardware to genuinely believe they have improved both "performance" and "value" which they may well have done by whatever mechanism they personally use to determine performance and value. However, they often have difficulty accepting that modified hardware is likely to be of less value than standard hardware to people that don't share their value system particularly if the parts to return the hardware to standard are missing and/or the modifications have been poorly implemented.

This was brought home to me a few years ago when trying to buy a fairly common amplifier on ebay with a well established second hand price. The amplifier I was looking to buy had an audiophile power cable soldered in place of the standard power cable. He had not kept the standard cable. Why should he when the audiophile cable performed better and had increased the value of the amplifier by £50-100 (can't remember the exact figure which was likely a proportion of the price of the cable) above the established price for the standard amplifier. This view seemed to be genuinely held and my pointing out that to many including myself the amplifier had been devalued by the cost of returning it to standard dismissed as nonsense. Perhaps he eventually found a buyer that shared his valuation of the worth of the modified amplifier. Perhaps the seller you cite will find a buyer that highly rates the PMC brand and prefers passive crossovers with boutique audiophile crossover components to active crossovers. Quite a few audiophiles have pretty weird value systems and if it adds to their enjoyment then good luck to them.

 

[Alastair]

They seem to be off ebay now!

Odd (although good reasons / ideas above) why they would be the way they currently are.

I think if I wanted a pair it would only be in the original active form, with say some ‘service’ history, if they had needed some tlc over time, if they had been inadvertently overdriven and a component failed, for example.