2. speakers
  3. 1020694607

Are active speakers the best upgrade

I have recently heard Brentworth (single driver, no crossover) and ATC active 100's. They were both vey revealing speakers and it occurred to me that we're chasing better electronics while maybe the speaker crossover is putting all this distortion back into the system.
Is the fact that these speakers are active what makes them so clear? Has anyone compared the active vs. passsive versions of ATC?
It's interesting that ATC focuses on accuracy in the drivers by eliminating hysteresis effects and 1st and 3rd order harmonics while B&W focuses more on the enclosure. I wonder how good B&W could sound if they made their Nautilus speakers active. Maybe they use such good crossovers that its as good as ATC's external crossover. Any thoughts?
cdc
clueless
763 posts
 
With regard to Lthkeeper's point, Paradigm had nice active speakers now discontinued. They are very good at marketing and my understanding is that they just could not sell them. People will not accept that package. Anyone else heard anything on why their active line was discontinued.

Unfortunately, do not hold your breath if you expect audio to be marketed in anything but separate little boxes as it is now.

I remain
unsound
6,115 posts
 
TacT might lead us into the future.
neubilder
129 posts
 

I suspect that the fetish factor of amps, cables, crossovers made with air core inductors blah blah...etc. is just too great. An active system makes everything just too plain and simple for the obsessive compulsive audiophile.
neubilder
129 posts
 
How are Meridian active speakers? I've never heard the DSP 5000's (or any of their speakers for that matter), nor have I heard many audiophiles talk about them. Are they good? How do they compare to Linn's active speakers or other makers passive designs.
justdan
9 posts
 
There are many active biamped 2-ways on the market. They're marketed as "studio monitors".

And of course powered subwoofers are all the rage.

What we don't see are a lot of active full-range tower speakers.
More to discover