BSS minidrive, Rane RPM 26z, other? suggestions - comments

[Ken L]

Well, I sold the VAC 30/30 (snif, snif)

So I'm looking to upgrade the digital crossover.

I'm leaning toward a BSS Minidrive because of it's reputation

Would consider EV Merlin, Klark-teknik if I could find them.

Wants - street price of $1000 - 1200 US or under

Digital processing

Transparency of sound - quality of sound is highest importance.

Any comments and suggestions from someone who has heard these or has other units for me to consider would be greatly appreciated.

The BSS Omnidrive compact plus seems to have everything I would like but is too dear at this point _grin_

Regards
Ken L

[Ken L]

Just bumping it up _grin_

Anybody?

Regards

Ken L

[slowmotion]

Hi Ken

What happened to your Behringer?
Did you try out something better?

cheers

[Ken L]

Originally posted by slowmotion
Did you try out something better?

Nope, but my system is getting better and better. As I increase resolution it makes sense to improve the active crossover to a higher level of quality since everything passes through it.

I believe I will probably go with a BSS minidrive without having heard one - I would rent one to try but the local rental guys don't stock them.

If I can find an BSS omnidrive used, I may well go that direction.

Originally posted by slowmotion
What happened to your Behringer?

I will put it in the trading post and on E-bay soon.

One very interesting thing offered on the new products are a new filter. NTM - Neville Thiele Method

http://www.bss.co.uk/products/crosso...36t/NTMV2.html

While I don't know that I will use it, I currently do best crossing to the subs using a 48 DB slope - so the NTM slopes are interesting to me.

However, my main and most important reason for buying the BSS is the reputation for transparency. I talked with one of their engineers and he said that the minidrive uses the same ADC/DAC's as the rest of their line, so it shoud be pretty good.

Thanks for your interest.

Regards

Ken L

[pinkmouse]

I will stick by my recommendation for the Minidrives, but if you see one around, the XTA DP226 are even better, but you're looking at around £1000, even s/h.

[Ken L]

I've been hunting a used xta - but the only one I could find used was $1600 US for a DP202.

These things seem to not hit the used market very much - I mean _any_ of the nicer digital units. I think the few that change hands probably do so directly between the tour guys.

I'll hunt a little longer for a used XTA, and if I can't find one, I'll go with an FDS 336T minidrive new - I found a good source for them new.

Thanks for the post.

Regards

Ken L

[pinkmouse]

Yes, what tends to happen is that they get bought as part of a system, and the whole thing gets sold together when finished with, rather than being broken up into individual units.

I don't know how the exchange rate works out at the moment, but you might want to have a look at Crystal Audio, They are good friends of mine and they do some pretty good kit at reasonable, (for the UK), prices.

[Ken L]

Originally posted by pinkmouse
I don't know how the exchange rate works out at the moment.............

Thanks for the link. They do have some good prices. The exchange rate isn't very good right now - at 1.78 US dollars per pound - still the prices are good enough to make them worth considering.

The problem comes when you add duty and freight, then it becomes more or less even.

While I have no doubt that "free trade" exists between the US and UK, the US Govt has seen fit to determine that this freedom doesn't extend to individuals making purchases outside the US.

Thankfully, tubes and smaller items that are sent via standard post from other countries frequently come in under the radar.

Don't know what category or tariff there is on used electronic crossovers, but I betcha it's 5 to 10%, possibly more.

However, I do sincerely appreciate the thought.

Best regards

Ken L

As an aside;

When I purchased Lowther DX4's out of Canada and attempted to find out the correct duty, I spent 45 minutes on phone and was routed to 7 or 8 different numbers at US Customs. Finally, got the person who was supposed to know - except he didn't know what category to place them in, and couldn't tell me who could. Unbelievable! After making the point that if he did that for a living and he couldn't tell me, I asked how could I make an informed decision? He hemmed, hawwed, said he would call me back. Which he never did. I gathered that since these turkeys don't have a clue, that basically it's up to the customs officer that clears it to determine exactly which category it falls in. Which really means you're not sure what the duty will be.

I expect a certain amount of beauracracy and BS when dealing with government agencies. However, I now put customs down there as low as Immigration and Naturalization, which IMHO is pretty far down the food chain.

_sad smile_

[Vadim]

Ken,

I think it is a mistake to assume that the BSS product will necessarily be better then the Behringer box. In my experience the Behringer DCX2496 measures to just better then 17 bits non-weighted. This is a rather remarkable result. The BSS box is close to that, but Behringer beats it although by a small and I would say insignificant margin.

Therefore, what we have here is that the A/D and D/A implementation in the Behringer is good enough for sure and not at all inferior to any other (including Rane products) digital crossover boxes.

The sound quality, if one can even talk about such thing, would most definitely be accounted for by the type of the algorithms used in a particular box. I do not know what BSS is using, but the Behringer product is definitely the IIR implementation. That would not unfortunately guarantee linear phase filters. I seems to recall that the Rane x26 product actually uses FIR filters, which is desirable. I say ‘desirable’ and not ‘necessary’ because the jury is still out as to the audibility of the differences. Personally I do not hear any differences at all, but my experiences are not scientific.

Anyway, the differences that would account for perceived sound quality between BSS, Behringer and Rane products are in software. Hence, we are talking about such a subtle nuance here that I would be extremely surprised that a Blind Test would identify those differences.

With introduction of a ‘killer’ combination of DCX2496 and DEQ2496 (which can be digitally connected) for a total of about $600US, the Behringer Company threw a monkey wrench into the megabuck pricing strategy of other companies, as I see no objective reason to spend extra on the BSS or the Rane product.

Vadim

[Ken L]

Came up with a deal on a Omnidrive Compact Plus over the weekend and sent the money off today.

Soooo, I'm committed.

You may be right and the way this is working out, I'm not sure if I'll able to identify any different impressions on the two units - I'm shipping out the amp today or tomorrow, so I will not be able to listen in the same system.

Thanks for your comments and post.

I now am getting quite a good sound and with the new preamp and amp will be maxing out my system. To some extent, I just want to be sure that I don't have potential weak links.

However, I always appreciate the input, guidance and thoughts of the regular posters here.

They have always been a big help to me in thinking things through and sorting out what directions I need to take.

Best regards

Ken L