What quality of active crossover will surpass passive?

[Hydrogen Alex]

DIY 2008 price to build $1,200

Alex, I bough my MM27 Gen1 right after they were released. They were sold for $6000 for a pair with top end ICEModules. I was quite surprised that I found I couldn't even DIY them for the price I paid. Extremely low markups. Thomas was actually a DIY speaker guru before he started Barefoot, and I still respect him. MM27 is a really good monitor, I love them.

Interesting Plasnu,

If you paid $6,000 back in 2008 ( i think they were released late in 2008), assuming small volume OEM pricing Thomas would be paying around $800 for his OEM drivers and the class D ICE power modules,( now uses Hypex) then add MDF / CNC, finishing and labour costs.
Plus fixed overheads and packaging / shipping....Call it $1,600 per pair.

Assuming typical commercial margins, Thomas would have made very good margin selling direct to studios. If he had to sell via dealers he makes ok margin.

Now in 2016....Thomas will have lower costs due to much higher volume and greater efficiency in his production. He has now added international distributors so his new pricing is ......1,000% margin from Manufacturer to international customer.
This is about average for international audio sales.

Barefoot sound UK RRP 2016. (£ & USD$ @ $1.44 to £1.00)

Barefoot Sound Micro Main 12 - £19,800 / $28,500
https://www.kmraudio.com/barefoot-sound-minimain12-pair.php
Barefoot Sound Micro Main 26 - £10,800 / $15,550
https://www.kmraudio.com/barefoot-micromain26.php
Barefoot Sound Micro Main 27 - £9,120 / $13,130
https://www.kmraudio.com/barefoot-sound-micromain27-gen2-pair.php
Barefoot Sound Micro Main 35 Gen 2 - £7,200 / $10,368
https://www.kmraudio.com/barefoot-sound-micromain35-gen2.php
Barefoot Sound Micro Main 45 - £5,400 / $7,776
https://www.kmraudio.com/barefoot-micromain45-pair.php
Barefoot Sound Master Stack - £15,600 / 22,464

 

[mtoc]

Alex, I bough my MM27 Gen1 right after they were released. They were sold for $6000 for a pair with top end ICEModules. I was quite surprised that I found I couldn't even DIY them for the price I paid. Extremely low markups. Thomas was actually a DIY speaker guru before he started Barefoot, and I still respect him. MM27 is a really good monitor, I love them.

Gen 1 uses Icepower while Gen 2 is Hypex if I remember correct, have you compared them?

 

[plasnu]

Gen 1 uses Icepower while Gen 2 is Hypex if I remember correct, have you compared them?

No. I think you're right about amps, but the Gen 1's tweeter is not driven by Ice.

 

[mtoc]

in gearslutz many users seem to go back to passive...

Passive xos for 4-way 7-drivers? Seems to be a little hard, maybe analog active xos is a solution?

 

[Hearinspace]

You should try DSP based active XO's - I think they sound very nice. Even a cheap 2x4 miniDSP is probably better than an op-amp based XO which will not be as flexible in freq and slopes etc. The higher end all digital miniDSP like nanoSHARC allow you to use your own DAC's for better sound quality.

Some people will always say that passives made with super expensive components will sound better than same in active DSP. It would be good to have a blind test of same XO's in DSP vs speaker level.

Hi XRK,
I did a search for the nanoSHARC mentioned above but I couldn't find anything. I wondered if the word imight have been a composite of two other terms you were thinking of at the time or does a product by the name really exist?

Thanks

 

[Sheldon]

I use a bit of everything - speaker level passive correction, line level digital filters, and line level analog filters:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/69906-unity-horn-project-progress-2.html#post4650197

The DEQX does all the processing in the digital domain, so there is only a single conversion from the digital input to the analog outputs. The MiniDSP does do an extra conversion, but that's for the subs only.

Sheldon

 

[dallas21]

Great active Xover- RTA room correction.

By far thd most advanced and practical Active devise is the DBX Drive rack PA-2
It will do Everything you could hope for. You just need 4 sets of XLRs
And 3 amplifiers. I use my 50wpc class-A Pass labs for the most important Midband
Where the majority of music resides the highs,and Bass from Emotiva new XPA-2
4 channel 250wpc. All Silnote Cabling. The 3way system I built .even with Duelunds
Best Cast capacitors cannot match the clarity and freedom from all those electrical
Distortions and inductance issues you get in all Xovers. not to mention the Dbx latest RTA room correction Real time analysis,a RTA Mike is needed. Your room will sound great !! Best money Ever spent !! For under $500 for the mike and DBX. P.s Behringer not even close for $400
Night and day better,and you can run all functions from an app to your tablet !!

DriveRack PA2 | dbx Professional Audio