Tri-Amped suggestions

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I just can't descide what to build !!!

Can anyone help me get the best bang for the buck(s) !

One thing I do know is that I want to go tri-amped with active filters. I have 21 P3A 's and would like to build 7 speakers for my ultimate HT setup. 50% music and 50% movies.
I've been pondering the Thor (and the Fat Thor), the Proteus, and the Eros. Then it occured to me that I might just be better off with a TMW configuration for my requirements. Should I stick with a tried and true design and retrofit the passive XO's with the actives or should I just pick drivers with a properly sized box and let the active xo's and amps do their magic ?

Thanks.
 
Triampimg is pretty expensive for a ''bang for the buck'' oriented builder.

If you ever decide to build any of the Thor,Proteus,etc you'd better stick to the plans rather than changing the design of it. Remodeling boxes is close to creating a design of your own. To go for a design or to workout the changes is up to you, unless you point out your priorities in matters of time, costs, complexity and sound, of course.

Seven triamped units, it's quite a joke.


Bonne nuit
Goss
 
I wrote a wiki article on crossovers which relates to this post

Keep in mind that an active xo needs to be integrated properly with the drivers acoustic rolloff just like a passive xo, it is not as easy as many think. Most drivers aren't suitable for a 4LR active xo which is the most commonly used as they don't have a wide enough flat response, at least not in a 3 way design.

You might consider digital active xo as they are very flexible and powerful. Typical active xo's aren't IMO very useful for most speakers.

This could all get out of hand in a HT with many channels. You could use 2 way active for the front 3 speakers, or 3 way if you consider the subs part of the mains. Surrounds could be passive. Saving here, you could put some decent funds into a sub that is articulate up to 80 Hz.

Behringer DCX would be good for this task, with 6 channels you could use it in a number of different ways - 2 way active xo for the front 3, or get two of them - one for the mains and sub/s, one for the centre and surrounds.

This is gonna get expensive so you might retain some passive xos for TMs.
 
Gee, just when I thought that an active setup would magicallly bring out the best of drivers I now find out that it really isn't that easy after all. Bummer !

Very nice site by the way Paul, I should have mentioned in my original post that I was also considering your Etude TL. Do you think your design would be a good candidate for a bi/tri amp setup ?

The Behringer looks like a really nice piece of equipment. I am however trying to build everything into the individual enclosures. I already have PCB's designed for the filters (based on the ESP LR) that also include balanced inputs and a few other goodies.

Thanks again.
 
Any speaker can pretty much be a candidate for going active.

Very nice site by the way Paul

Thanks ;)

I've almost given up trying to get my subs to sound as good as my TLs! They sound great with acoustic double bass in particular, very natural sound. They don't quite satisfy my appetite for SPL, however, so the TL aspect might seem a waste after I add in some active woofers, but another advantage of the TL is that you can stuff the cabinet to kill midrange rear wave.

The problem with a textook LR4 is that you need 2 octaves of flat response either side of fc to achieve optimal performance. I have used a 3 way active xo similar to the ESP but it didn't sound as good as my passive xo! I used my subs as the woofer crossed at 80 Hz, tweeter xo @ 2.4k

To work with those xo points you need a mid that is flat from 20Hz - 10k! Have you found a suitable driver for that? lol The tweeter needs to be flat down to 600 Hz, also not likely!

To get such an active xo you pretty much have to choose the drivers to make the xo work! ie. a woofer crossed at say 200 Hz to a very flat full range driver that can go flat from 50 Hz - 20k. The tweeter would have to cross at 5k and be flat down to 1.25k.

I don't really favour the idea of choosing drivers to suit the xo!

I think a better way to design an active xo is to work with the driver acoustic rolloff. If your mid has an F3 @ 80 Hz and 2nd order rolloff, add a 2nd order filter on top of it and you get effectively 4th order. Then put a LP on the woofer with 4LR and you can effectively get a 4LR which is more workable.
 
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