You are exactly right. Self-powered loudspeakers with active crossovers and amplifiers directly driving the speakers yields the best performance. The Athena active loudspeakers I built had four 125-W MOSFET power amplifiers in each cabinet. Two driving 2 pairs of 5.25" woofers, one driving the midrange and one driving the tweeter. It was a 3.5-way system with active baffle step compensation. A large heatsink on the rear of the cabinet got the heat out from the class AB amplifiers. With sonically-competitive class D amplifiers, the argument for powered loudspeakers is even more compelling.
Eliminating the amplifier/speaker cable/loudspeaker mix and match is indeed a barrier to acceptance in the audiophile community.
Cheers,
Bob
Eliminating the amplifier/speaker cable/loudspeaker mix and match is indeed a barrier to acceptance in the audiophile community.
Cheers,
Bob
Yes. They were playing at low volume while I was in another room cooking dinner with a lady friend.
Clear enough, or do you think I'd play some music, and sit there between the speakers listening intently for differences?
When enough FUDs have been spread by the marketeers of boutique amps and cables, people are scared to go outside of their comfort zone.
100 dollars for a pair of interconnect cables is considered cheap???? Or is that JMD and not USD?
Getting a little OT from speaker cables, but..........
Are you saying that you don't take the individual drivers into consideration with an electronic crossover that you design?
I've been using powered speakers at work since 1996. Meyer and JBL. I like them for PA work, but many audio techs do not.
For home use where it's a hobby, powered speakers don't interest me much. Building and listening to amps is fun, it's part of the pastime. That's a good reason to have passive crossovers, you can quickly hook up any old amp and have a listen. Great entertainment value.
For home use where it's a hobby, powered speakers don't interest me much. Building and listening to amps is fun, it's part of the pastime. That's a good reason to have passive crossovers, you can quickly hook up any old amp and have a listen. Great entertainment value.
Hi Even! I apologize for not responding sooner but I was laid up with an injury for a few days. No, I'm not involved with any audio products or their sales, other than purchasing them for my audio system and enjoyment. Scottmoose and Dave from Planet 10 know me a little bit from this forum over the years. I believe they can vouch about that statement being the truth. Believe it or not, EVERYTHING I say in my posts here is what I believe to be the 100% truth based on my being an avid music lover and audiophile for the past 54 years and conclusions I've drawn from critical and casual listening as well as manual DBTs I've performed with audio friends when I still lived in Connecticut. Truth be told, the first time I read here that someone still didn't believe wires sounded different (I'm saying still because some 39 to 40 years ago I also believed that) I thought objectivists were just attempting to get a rise out of subjectivists because of their many other differences in beliefs.
My POV on this topic is if a person hears the differences between wires and wants to buy better wires they should and if I person doesn't hear the differences in wires and doesn't want to buy "better" wires they shouldn't! I only get occasionally involved when I see objectivists mocking people like myself because we can hear differences in wires they cannot hear. In my case, when I first heard a difference in wires, no one can say it was due to expectation bias because at that time I didn't believe wires made any difference. However, when my friend brought over his XLO ICs for me to hear in my system and then later his XLO speaker wires, I easily heard the difference even though I didn't expect to! To be completely honest with you Even, I find it absolutely amazing that once a person has developed critical listening skills and their audio system has been improved above mid-fi quality, they cannot readily hear the sonic difference between a well-made, high-quality $150/pr ICs and my $3.2K NBS Professional, $1.1K Teo Audio GC Ultra, or $1.2K Atelier Rullit ICs. That being said, I cannot see myself going a lot further with this debate as this is one of those audiophile debates/arguments/discussions that will never be won by either side yet, continues to rage on after many, many years...
Thetubeguy1954
Joel, if you honestly cannot hear the difference between lamp-cord and the Snake River Audio Cottonmouth Signature and Sablon Audio Gran Corona power cords, I'd love for you to list the make and model of your:
1) source(s)
2) preamp & power amp, or integrated amp
3) speakers
Also how old are you and how long have you been involved in our hobby?
Thetubeguy1954
I know what you're getting at, but the appeal to better gear and better ears never ends. I have swapped cables on systems far, far more advanced and resolving than yours, in very good acoustic spaces - and heard only minor differences. Those differences always come down to L/C/R.
For interconnects, my demo with bananas, potatoes and mud really sealed the deal for me. It was nearly impossible to tell them apart or from the original file - and people were free to use whatever system and whatever method they chose. It's as near a bullet proof test as you can get.
For interconnects, my demo with bananas, potatoes and mud really sealed the deal for me. It was nearly impossible to tell them apart or from the original file - and people were free to use whatever system and whatever method they chose. It's as near a bullet proof test as you can get.
Oh, your personal belief! Got it. Yeah, you are free to believe whatever you want.
Audio cables can make audible difference if the properties (L C R) deviate far enough from industry standard specs. It has nothing to do with the price, expensive or cheap.
Same thing here. Of course, some people will never believe such a thing is possible. Human belief is an interesting subject. Here's one academic paper on about it: https://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~dtg/Gillbert (How Mental Systems Believe).PDF
You know what else is interesting, internet posters.
"Please see Ioannidis: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False"
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