Best Loudspeaker Management System

[_Wim_]

@soundright

My responce was to the following post:

A-B comparison between the DEQX and my Passive crossover design.

My DEQX system is as follow:
The crossover points are the same either way but the slopes are slightly different 4th order passive vs. 8th order active

Passive Crossover: Extremely detailed and not veiled. The nuance and the realism comes across. Instuments sound real. The backround comes through much bettter

Active Crossover: Much better dynamic range and volume capacity, and slightly better center image but less of a soundstage. The sound has alot less speed and toe tapping rythem. Kind of lifeless sounding but very acurate.

My comment was that you cannot make a comparison in "sound quality" between "active" and "passive" based on these 2 very different setups:
- a 4th passive filter will react very different then an 8th active filter.
When you perform an AB comparison, you are not comparing sound quality between active and passive, but between 2 very different filters

If your point is that both of these setups will have a very comparable polar responce (meaning cross-over responce is almost identical) and the only difference is the distorsion induced by the electronics of the active cross-over, then I think at least one of us needs to do some reading....

 

[dfidler]

Out of curiosity, how hard would this be to diy (without using a PC)?

You'd, need a DAC, ADC, and some processing power + memory. As I'm at the beginning of my journey of electronics, I've no idea how daunting that would be but I suspect that it might not be horrific.

Anyone know of any diy schems for this kind of thing and which 'text book's the algorithms are in?

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[dfidler]

To clarify, I'm a programmer so the code wouldn't be horrific for me; the electronics OTOH....

 

[BobEllis]

Surprised nobody has mentioned MiniDSP in this thread. I haven't used it (I have Frequency Allocator with an M-Audio FW410) but it is exactly the solution dfidler suggests. Not sure if it's open enough to allow your own programming, but the XO software modules available seem to provide most if not all the functionality we'd need. Last I looked they didn't have a phase correction plug in equivalent to Thuneau's Phase Arbitrator.

 

[_Wim_]

To clarify, I'm a programmer so the code wouldn't be horrific for me; the electronics OTOH....

Most DSP-suppliers deliver nice software packages to program their deveices, so that will be no problem for you. You could purchase an evalutation board from them. I not completely DIY, but in most cases you still need to build multiple power supplies, a case and an interface. This way you avoid the need for a complex PCB, and still can have much DIY fun.

 

[Frode]

Ok another question.

What if i use instead of thouse components just a PC with apropriate sound card and software. Will this works?

Yes, that's what I use: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/176849-ultimative-pc-based-xo-version.html

Frode

 

[doug20]

Surprised nobody has mentioned MiniDSP in this thread. I haven't used it (I have Frequency Allocator with an M-Audio FW410) but it is exactly the solution dfidler suggests. Not sure if it's open enough to allow your own programming, but the XO software modules available seem to provide most if not all the functionality we'd need. Last I looked they didn't have a phase correction plug in equivalent to Thuneau's Phase Arbitrator.

I have 3 of them and I need to order a balanced one. I have replaced me DCXs with them. I also own the Hypex AS100.2 (tiny) amps...cool stuff. I wish the MiniDSPs had phase correction that would make it truely the ultimate XO product. I still consider it the 2010 audio product of the year.

Im going to buy the DEQX this year to compare since I believe that device to be the utlimate choice, well the brick wall > 100dB slopes with phase correction just seem logical like a perfect storm in the audio XO design realm.

Im not interested in the PC options even though Im a software developer by profession...go figure.

Passive XOs are crap to me.

 

[doug20]

Perhaps it's a matter of personal taste. Some like their equiments to be neutral sounding, some like it tasty/sweet like tubes.

And some think cables can alter the sound drastically too, they also think DACs have a great differences. I ignore posts from those who have that sort of wild imagination.

The spend years finding cables, searching for DACs post wildly subjective opinions and fluffy reviews only to findout their crappy XOs, crappy rooms effect the SQ 100 times more then any cable or DAC choice.

Conclusion, its not really a matter of taste, its how screw up someone's subconscious "expectation guidance" system is