After tinkering with DIY loudspeakers for 20 years I am now convinced that active crossover and bi/tri amping is the way to go to get the most out of your loudspeakers (usually the weak link).
Here are the reasons for active crossover/tri amping: 1) Removing the passive crossover between amp and driver provides the best possible damping of the driver. As a result it feels like the fog has cleared from the sound (A/B test with my passive crossover DIYs). 2) It is much easier to adjust for the different sensitivity of the woofer / mid / tweeter without the need of an equalizer (which usually degrades the sound). 3) Most active crossover (analog or digital) use a 24 dB Linkwitz/Riley alignment which is phase coherent. 4) Active crossovers allow for DIY R&D (a.k.a trial and error) within reasonable time and budget limits. Just turn the knobs. 5) Allows tweaking the single drivers gains (change equalization) when listening to different recording (they are all over the map) 6) May render expensive room correction fixes unneeded. Fore more info see the very well made articles at http://sound.westhost.com/articles.htm While in pro sound multi-amping is, among others, a way to maximize SPL per $ it also provide the ideal low volume solution for the critical listening. It allows increasing the gain to the woofer when it needs it the most: at low volumes. OTOH the drawbacks of multi-amping are: 1) Cable complexity: crossover interconnects to 6 amp channels 2) Speaker cables: 6 3) High probability of ground loops hum due to number of connections (balanced connectors, isolation transformer, lifting ground, may be necessary) 4) Did I mention cables? I did not mention the cost of tri-amping as a con because it can actually be quite less than the (almost) equivalent sounding single stereo amp system. Enough with the background info, its all in the implementation details I also considered DEQX PDC2.6P and the DCX2496. The first, although seems an ideal solution, is beyond my price point, the second not quite right for preamp use, plus its DAC received mixed reviews. My dream box is a Transporter with a built in DEQX PDC2.6P. My actual solution is to use a 24 dB Linkwitz/Riley 234 DBX active crossover. I had to custom made the cables to connect it to the SB3 and the three stereo amps (TRS to RCA). The amps are: two Audiosource AMP3 (woofer + mid) and one Audiosource AMP1A (tweeters). These amps have the possibility to adjust the gain if needed. I found that the 234 DBX crossover is a perfect match for the SB3 analog output (at max volume). I also keep the Audiosource amp gain at max. Thus the only variable volume control I use is the input gain on the crossover itself (-12 to +12 dB, one per channel). Where -12 dB is background music, 0dB is just right, +6dB is to impress the guest. The only minor drawback of this volume control is the lack of remote control but, to my surprise, this is not bothersome since I can remotely pause the music when the phone rings or wife calls. If anybody is using the DEQX PDC2.6P I would like to hear what you think about it. -- arge ------------------------------------------------------------------------ arge's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6155 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27916 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
