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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
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.
dennisj
39 posts
 
For me, a big YES. I sold my Tylers and Egglestons and purchased one of the last fifty pairs of Paradigm V2.Active 40s. On Osiris stands, JPS, HT and Luminous ICs and a Rogue 99 Magnum with Sylvania GTAs the sound is glorious.

Bass is awesome, this is the most enjoyable system I have owned. According to Paradigm plans were for active 20s, through 100s, due to lagging sales and combined with a higher cost factor the 20s and 40s have been discontinued.

As to the 40s, 2k and you get 4 amps, what a sweet deal, yet audiophiles did not respond. I think one review said it best " Audiophiles don't buy 2k speakers and 2k was to pricy for the rest"
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