Why are the Infinity IRS, Reference 1b, Beta ect speakers passive on the mids and highs?


I would like to know why all of the classic Infinity's and most other brands use passive crossovers for the mid to high transition? I don't think it was for cost and that level. Is passive better? Has anyone compared both to know which is better?
partroysound
Hi Marc,
   Ok, I'm familiar with most of what you have... The Richter Scale is not really adjustable enough, I was made for a fairly low crossover point for a 2 way with an eq on top.  The Epicenter and the Nakamichi are 12v products...  The Nak would probably work fairly well. It one of the better units for car audio.  As much as I'd like to see you use the Audio Research the 6db slopes on top will not work well with the ribbons.  
There are more slopes than besel, butterworth and linkwitz riley, but these are the main 3 used today. The act differently with how linear they are and how they handle phase. Depending on frequency, 1 can cause smearing, another will bring a rise at the crossover point and another will be flat at the crossover...
Being able to mix slope, we can correct some errors... Mix as in 12 up and 18 down... Although most electronic crossovers today are linkwitz riley 24/24 and that is always a good choice... even though you may like the sound of another slope, when in doubt, Linkwitz Riley is the go to...
So the Nak is 18db per octave and I don't know what type of slope it uses.... but you can't make any changes, so it is what it is.  The Nak will allow you to experiment, but if you ever want to get the most that you can from these beautiful speakers, you'll need something more versatile.
What does it sound like using the published crossover points of 700 & 8k?  and of course you realize the real problem comes in level matching. 
The first Watt B4 x/o offers 1st/2nd/3rd/4th order (6/12/18/24 dB/octave) filters in 25Hz increments from 25Hz to 6275Hz. It is about to be discontinued, so if you want it better grab one while you can!
140Hz does seem a little low for the EMIM’s to go down to
+1 agree you could kill them, I'd say more like 200 to 250hz

Cheers George 
I thought that I'd stop speculating and look these up:

Here are the spec's from the Stereophile review:
Description: Five-way, two-chassis, dynamic, floorstanding loudspeaker system with four EMIT ribbon tweeters, seven EMIM ribbon midrange units, and six servo-controlled polyproylene-cone woofers. Electronic crossover frequencies: 125Hz, 700Hz, 3kHz, and 8kHz.
Dimensions: LF section: 60" H by 14" W by 15" D. HF section. 60" H by 22" by 13" D.
Price: $5295/system (1985); no longer available (2006).

Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/infinity-reference-standard-1b-loudspeaker-specifications#3FRfKtT...

and here is the owners manual: 
   http://www.davidsaudio.com/rs1b-manual.pdf


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