Pros and cons of active speakers
- Thread starter Neil P
- Start date
Neil P
pfm Member
Cheers. I would be selling power amps and speakers to free up the cash. I've always considered active speakers as glorified PA systems (for no reason!)... I'm guessing they're more refined than that! I do want good SQ at low levels (although will sometimes want to crank up the volume).
Cav
pfm Member
You do not need to spend big money to go active.
I ended up with money in the bank & a better system.
When thinking about active speakers, it's worth separating out what i'd call 'traditional' analog active speakers from modern DSP based ones. The traditional active speakers are an active crossover with amplifiers coupled directly to the drivers, so the benefits are do with moving to a more accurate and possibly higher order active filter, with more controllable phase response, and with the potential to tweak the frequency response to suit room placement (so these designs typically have shelving controls for the bass end, and maybe a high pass filter with settings for integrating with a sub).
In the newer camp are the DSP based designs. These convert the input analog signal through a ADC to the digital domain, apply filtering in the digital domain to then drive amplifiers and drivers. These designs have some amazing potential, specifically that the filters can be much more easily tuned to the drivers, so potentially correcting known limitations of the drivers. In addition, you can do clever stuff like room correction, and fancier crossover designs (e.g. correcting phase errors). You'll also typically find digital inputs to these designs, from traditional SPDIF through to ethernet protocols like Dante.
The downside of the modern DSP based designs will be some degree of latency introduced by the conversion process, which will be low milliseconds (<5) and some doubt as to the quality of this conversion and the associated DAC. The major players in this market use very high quality parts and know what they are doing, but do your research and ask questions if you have any doubt.
Some makers have stuck the analog route (e.g. ATC) and some offer both designs (genelec), but I think the benefits of the DSP based approach is the way forward. I think the two approaches need to be considered separately, so don't just do an active vs passive, do a DSP, analog active and passive comparison...
In the newer camp are the DSP based designs. These convert the input analog signal through a ADC to the digital domain, apply filtering in the digital domain to then drive amplifiers and drivers. These designs have some amazing potential, specifically that the filters can be much more easily tuned to the drivers, so potentially correcting known limitations of the drivers. In addition, you can do clever stuff like room correction, and fancier crossover designs (e.g. correcting phase errors). You'll also typically find digital inputs to these designs, from traditional SPDIF through to ethernet protocols like Dante.
The downside of the modern DSP based designs will be some degree of latency introduced by the conversion process, which will be low milliseconds (<5) and some doubt as to the quality of this conversion and the associated DAC. The major players in this market use very high quality parts and know what they are doing, but do your research and ask questions if you have any doubt.
Some makers have stuck the analog route (e.g. ATC) and some offer both designs (genelec), but I think the benefits of the DSP based approach is the way forward. I think the two approaches need to be considered separately, so don't just do an active vs passive, do a DSP, analog active and passive comparison...
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
The more advanced designs allow you to adjust latency should you need to with only the loss of phase coherence,
Keith
Keith
Cereal Killer
432
I’ve been from passive to active to passive and now active again. Both types setup correctly sound superb. It’s not really an SQ thang TBH, It’s a typology and build/integration thang. Currently having a stack of precious boxes doesn’t work in our lives but some hi-end standmounts did, so in came a pair of D&D 8C’s. And now with them being roonready its just speakers and a server.
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
The advantages of active operation are many and various, there is no doubt it offers a huge leap in quality over passive.
The big drawback is in the requirement for accurate configuration, which requires experience and competence.
The more complicated the setup, the more time and skill required.
No amount of config can account for a poor speaker or a poor room.
Badly configured active systems are well capable of sounding worse than passive.
The big drawback is in the requirement for accurate configuration, which requires experience and competence.
The more complicated the setup, the more time and skill required.
No amount of config can account for a poor speaker or a poor room.
Badly configured active systems are well capable of sounding worse than passive.
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
Cutting edge active designs work with the room, bass output adjustment allows them to be used close to walls ( if desired) cardioid Fr means more direct sound, inbuilt parametric Eq allows room mode derived ‘boomy’ bass to be removed, phase coherent, completely full range, constant directivity the list of advantages goes on and on.
Keith
Keith
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
The less work the active filters have to do the better.
Starting with a good speaker , well matched to a properly treated space will always allow for better ultimate results.
You can make the best of it with eq. but it’s far from the ideal solution.
Starting with a good speaker , well matched to a properly treated space will always allow for better ultimate results.
You can make the best of it with eq. but it’s far from the ideal solution.
Neil P
pfm Member
Please could you elaborate on configuration - say I buy a pair of ATCs, is there more to do than just adjust positioning?
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
I’m the wrong person to ask about buying ATC.
I will say that speaker position is absolutely crucial and far more difficult and exacting than many realise.
I will say that speaker position is absolutely crucial and far more difficult and exacting than many realise.
Eyebroughty
JohnC
A pair of passive Shahinian Arcs is better than active Isobariks, just more music with Shahinian, I know I have had active Isobariks and known others who have gone to Shahinian over active Isobariks
The big downside to active is that if any part breaks you are stuffed, at least with passive there is only the amp and speakers to worry about, not multiple amps, crossovers and power supplies.
Active is only a way to get you to spend more money on amps and other associated electronics
The big downside to active is that if any part breaks you are stuffed, at least with passive there is only the amp and speakers to worry about, not multiple amps, crossovers and power supplies.
Active is only a way to get you to spend more money on amps and other associated electronics
Dowser
Learning to bodge again..
Only?
This is what ATC say are the potential benefits of active amplification:
Active Vs Passive – What are the benefits of an active loudspeaker system?
While it is possible to design a high performance loudspeaker using passive components, an active design has a number of benefits, these are listed below;
1) More accurate crossovers
As the separate amplifiers in an active system are located after the crossover, they only operate over a limited bandwidth. This reduces intermodulation-distortion and, in comparison to a passive system, even a bi or tri-amped passive system, an active system will show 15 – 20dB lower intermodulation distortion.
3) Improved Frequency Response and Stereo Matching
An active system can very simply feature individual gain trims for the two, three or four amplifiers involved. This allows very simple fine tuning of the frequency response and the stereo matching. Similar matching in a passive system would involve the replacement of large, soldered passive components which, in practice, is difficult and time consuming for the manufacturer.
4) Lower Cost for Higher Performance
Because an active system is designed, engineered and implemented by a single manufacturer into as compact a package as the design allows, cost is saved on electronics case work and packaging and the manufacturer can invest in real performance enhancing changes or pass the saving on to the customer.
https://atc.audio/active-amplification/
Active Vs Passive – What are the benefits of an active loudspeaker system?
While it is possible to design a high performance loudspeaker using passive components, an active design has a number of benefits, these are listed below;
1) More accurate crossovers
- Active filters allow independent control of level and phase(time). This is not possible with passive crossovers. With a passive crossover any changes you make to the circuit affect both level and phase. The benefit this allows is that we can adjust for the crossover to have a perfect magnitude response and phase response. The result is that the stereo imaging is much more stable and the tonal balance of instruments is improved.
- An active filters performance is not changed by the temperature of the drive unit voice coil as they are not directly connected to them. A passive crossovers performance (filter shape and crossover frequency) will change with voice coil temperature which, increases with SPL (input power). This leads to passive loudspeaker systems having a slightly different sound when driven at low SPL compared to high SPL. The performance of active ATC systems changes very little with drive level.
- More efficient crossovers. Active crossovers do not need to use series inductors to achieve their filter shapes. Series inductors have resistance that reduces bass driver efficiency and also increases the Q of the low frequency tuning.
- More cost effective crossovers. Passive crossover networks use large, bulky and expensive components in order to deal with the high voltages from a power amplifier. Active crossovers offer better performance for lower cost.
As the separate amplifiers in an active system are located after the crossover, they only operate over a limited bandwidth. This reduces intermodulation-distortion and, in comparison to a passive system, even a bi or tri-amped passive system, an active system will show 15 – 20dB lower intermodulation distortion.
3) Improved Frequency Response and Stereo Matching
An active system can very simply feature individual gain trims for the two, three or four amplifiers involved. This allows very simple fine tuning of the frequency response and the stereo matching. Similar matching in a passive system would involve the replacement of large, soldered passive components which, in practice, is difficult and time consuming for the manufacturer.
4) Lower Cost for Higher Performance
Because an active system is designed, engineered and implemented by a single manufacturer into as compact a package as the design allows, cost is saved on electronics case work and packaging and the manufacturer can invest in real performance enhancing changes or pass the saving on to the customer.
https://atc.audio/active-amplification/
I would agree with that. I had the D&D 8c’s here for three days or so. Very clever, mighty impressive technology. They just don’t sound very good.