Any thoughts on passive v. active speakers?

I'm having a lot of fun wiring speakers together. I have two in series and one running in parralel per channel on one amp at 12 Ohms - all PASSIVE.

The sum sounds more than the parts, if you align things right. I have my cabinets mostly laid on their sides closer to ear level and stacked up in walls of sound.

You could scale this up and the sound would just get bigger and sound better wouldn't it, as long as you kept the load reasonable.

You could scale this up and the sound would just get bigger and sound better wouldn't it, as long as you kept the load reasonable.

No, I don't think so, Roger. The problem that would arise is that the same sound would be arriving at the listener's ears at multiple times, due to the different path lengths to the various speakers, and probably also due to different signal delays within the speakers and their crossover networks. That will degrade the sound as a result of what are known as comb filtering effects.

Regards,
-- Al

Almarg, let the man have his fun!

The Braun L200 is plentiful on the used market. I recommend you get a minimum of six (6) pairs (or more) and stack them on their sides such that the tweeters are vertically aligned. You will have a DIY line array. You will have to experiment with whether the tweeters are inside or outside aligned. You could even turn one the L200 pair backwards to generate some rear ambiance soundfield. Wire it up appropriately and run them with the Atmasphere and you will be in audio heaven with a unique system with a capital U. I'm dead serious.

Atmasphere, why don't you build an active system? Team up with someone like CAR and come out with a fully integrated bi/tri-amped, all analog system. Can you imagine the glow coming off six of your mono amps? The price tag would breach $100k, but I think in today's market that could be a positive selling point. Have it go head to head with an MBL or Focal/Naim systems.

Hi Ralph,
Please refer to these pages, you will find more than a few active loudspeakers which can do 20hz and below in the most conservative sense:

https://pmc-speakers.com/products/consumer/se-series
http://www.atcloudspeakers.co.uk/hi-fi/loudspeakers/tower-series/scm20aslt/

BTW, doing 20hz is not always the most important criteria IMO, for that matter many loudspeakers do that. I agree though that if one is focussed on having a tube amplification then active speakers are not available ready made.

While many transistor advocates say their amps are neutral, I've yet to hear one that does not impart a coloration- that of brightness and hardness.

Ralph, I have owned three, the Class A Clayton M300 and M200 monoblocks and the Acoustic Imagery Atsah Ncore NC1200 monos. Maybe in comparison to certain tubed amplifiers there is a quality that some may call hardness but, in comparison to other SS amplifiers I have owned and heard, those amps mentioned would not be considered hard-sounding. IMO, none of the three would be considered "bright" sounding.

Unfortunately, I have yet to hear a perfect amplifier since all I have heard have sonic and operational trade-offs. I have owned some quite good SS Class AB amplifiers that have a hint of the brightness/hardness traits you mentioned but that were otherwise excellent. Since I notice this more after my last three amplifiers being Class A designs, and one Class D, I have wondered if maybe I am now more sensitive to crossover effects in class AB designs. In other words, could the "brightness/hardness" effect you point out be a byproduct of the Class AB design that some of the better designers are able to greatly reduce or even eliminate?