Anyone heard both the passiv or active versions of Troels Gravesen The Loudspeaker 1 or 2? and if what do you liked the best?
I did not hear them, but made right, after hearing the active version, you will always search for this kind of special "sound" and miss the freshness it gives over the passive version.
Active speakers are more difficult to make and in the end cheaper for the customer than a passive one, seen from a commercial standpoint, as you sell no more power amp.. Give me a tweeter and a woofer and I give you a typical passive speaker of industrial quality after a week. If I had to do it active, ask in a month how far it has come.
Were real sound quality, counts, passive speakers have gotten rare. Professional listeners are not impressed by fancy design and marketing voodoo, like the usual idiot looking for a pair of “speakers”. He is the industries target for expensively sold, cheap build speakers with coil's and cap's of a few pennies production costs.
You will rarely be able to listen to the same speaker, powered by the same amps, driven active and passive. If this is possible, I know what you will pick, even after a short listening test.
Active speakers are more difficult to make and in the end cheaper for the customer than a passive one, seen from a commercial standpoint, as you sell no more power amp.. Give me a tweeter and a woofer and I give you a typical passive speaker of industrial quality after a week. If I had to do it active, ask in a month how far it has come.
Were real sound quality, counts, passive speakers have gotten rare. Professional listeners are not impressed by fancy design and marketing voodoo, like the usual idiot looking for a pair of “speakers”. He is the industries target for expensively sold, cheap build speakers with coil's and cap's of a few pennies production costs.
You will rarely be able to listen to the same speaker, powered by the same amps, driven active and passive. If this is possible, I know what you will pick, even after a short listening test.
Active speakers have the major benefit of being able to design the crossover with fewer restrictions, and without any compromise on the passive parts inside the speaker, since it's just a few leads and not a series of capacitors, inductors, etc. In general, all else held equal, an active implementation will beat a passive one if only because you can get the crossover frequency exactly right and even correct for intersample variations in the drivers.
The main reason to go passive is if you already have a separate amp you really like.
The main reason to go passive is if you already have a separate amp you really like.
The problem with active speakers is, with the flip of a dip-switch or a mouse-click, you can change them from perfect to unusable and back.
Want the voice a little fatter? Voila, done in a second.
Low end to much boom? OK, here you go.
Time correction? Fine, done.
You can not tell what you like if you did not hear it personally.
I know Mr. Gravesen is a great tinkerer with the most complicated passive x-overs. I don't think he is going to mess up one of his speakers when up-grading them with active technology. If the active version is not better, TG has to spent some more time with the progamming...
Maybe he has finally realized there is something wrong, when single capacitors cost more than a high end tweeter. Two good stereo D-amps and a DSP cost less than a single Janzen x-over made from bees wax and moon shine harvested virgin wool.
Want the voice a little fatter? Voila, done in a second.
Low end to much boom? OK, here you go.
Time correction? Fine, done.
You can not tell what you like if you did not hear it personally.
I know Mr. Gravesen is a great tinkerer with the most complicated passive x-overs. I don't think he is going to mess up one of his speakers when up-grading them with active technology. If the active version is not better, TG has to spent some more time with the progamming...
Maybe he has finally realized there is something wrong, when single capacitors cost more than a high end tweeter. Two good stereo D-amps and a DSP cost less than a single Janzen x-over made from bees wax and moon shine harvested virgin wool.