Anybody have an actively multi-amplified system?

Hi John!

Great to see a reply so soon after posting. Yes it is more complex, and costly, so it's not for everyone. But not really...if for example (and I know this isn't a good one) people are buying $100,000 speakers to be driven by a $50,000 monster power amp, it makes far more sense to not buy the crossover assembly within the cabinet (there's a lot of expense there), but to buy 2 or 3 smaller amplifiers and an electronic crossover, as long as the quality is on par with what you're giving up. And yes you need more cabling. But the sound will be NIGHT AND DAY better. Not having a bunch of coils, capacitors and resistors between the output of the amplifier and the driver itself, it HAS to be better.

I have the Esoteric stack, P-01/2x D-01/G-0Rb. It has a variable output and it drives the crossover directly, no preamp at all. Not all DACs can do that, and some people swear by a preamp. My philosophy is if the DAC has a proper drive stage to begin with, you don't need one, unless you need input switching or a volume control. If you do need a volume control and/or input switching, Goldpoint makes what I consider the best passive preamp available, and it's cheap($500)! I have the SA-1X balanced version, and it's so simple, yet sounds so transparent, it's like there's nothing there (not using it at the moment). And yes it's a stepped attenuator, just what you're looking for. They sell them direct, and the RCA version will be even less, like $300. OK, back to crossovers. I used an Audio Control Richter Scale for a while when I was just starting, and the Behringer is along similar lines. It will certainly get you into the world of active, and it's worth trying just to see what active does, but honestly, you won't be happy with it in the long run. It's cheap, so you won't lose much if you resell it, but it's pretty low-end. The question of course, is what do you buy that's better? Bryston has one, never tried it. There's just not much around. Accuphase makes one, but they're all digital now, and pretty expensive. My crossover runs in the analog domain, so there's no extra A/D and D/A conversion, but they haven't built them since 2001! There's just no demand. As far as time-aligning goes, I have quite a bit of experience with that. You are FAR better off to physically move the drivers so they're time aligned, than trying digital delay. It sounds WAY better if you can build the speakers time-aligned in the first place. I've found over the years, that digital anything - crossovers, delays, filters, equalisation...just doesn't sound nearly as good for some reason, as doing it in the analog domain. And thanks, I really wanted to start this thread as it's something that CAN be done, in the real world, with real budgets. The only people that I know of that have ever done anything like this in the consumer world is Linn. It's okay, it has quite the cult following, but it's not my cup of tea. Keep writing, as you make progress. Thanks John!

Csontos, I'd go with the DCX2496es personally, but it's your call. I've heard them, and they're not terrible, the soundstage is just somewhat flat and boring, and somewhat trebly. It's just the nature of the beast, being built in China with small power supplies, inexpensive op-amps, etc., but you can start replacing parts if you want. The Marchand looks a little too "garage made" for me, although it probably sounds okay. You do want accurate gain control and crossover points, left to right and woofer to tweeter, and the pots seem like they don't have very tight tolerances, so you'll do a lot of tweaking by ear. By the way all, as of the fiscal end of this year in Japan, which happens to be 9/20, Accuphase is dumping all parts for my analog crossover, so if I want any x-over modules I gotta get them now. Found out in just the nick of time. They've built it since 2001, but since then all their new models operate in the digital domain. Yes they're infinitely adjustable with no extra modules, but the down side is you go D/A out from the CD player, through a preamp to the crossover, which then re-converts A/D, does it's processing, then converts D/A once again. Supposedly the converters are pretty high end, but I still have a problem with 3 stages of numbers to sound, sound to numbers, and sound to numbers conversion. The battle continues...

Csontos, I'm not encouraging you to go with anything in particular. The Behringer can be modded pretty easily, with much better op-amps, power supply, etc. to make it WAY better than it ships out of the factory. I'm sorry, I don't know much about the Marchand, I'd never heard of it before this. I'm just not much on equipment with point-to-point wiring, that's all. There's an Accuphase F-25 on Ebay right now, if I needed one and I had the cash, that's what I'd go with. Just an opinion.

Sorry Mustang, for the 3 threads. This website isn't particularily sophisticated, and I didn't know at the time I'd started 3 of them. More than happy to carry on where others have, and let the other 2 die.

Rodman, I too, would love to try the Accuphase DF-55. It's infinitely flexible, so other than perhaps software updates from time to time, it would be a set-and-forget unit, and likely you'd never sell it, nor be able to easily. And, unfortunately, it lists for $22,000. For that money, I gotta try before I buy. Even though there is one for sale here for a steal ($9000), virtually brand new in the box, I just don't like all the D/A and A/D conversion that will go on with an analog input. I'm sure it's really good conversion, but it's just occuring too many times, IMO. If you have a digital source with attenuation, then it should sound pretty damn awesome. You are, of course, now listening to an Accuphase DAC (actually many of them), they're pretty good I'm sure, if you like Delta-Sigma DACs. Personally, I think Delta-Sigma DACs, even multiple ones in parallel, have a particular sound that simply can't match the R2R Burr-Browns, no matter what power supply or surrounding circuitry you throw at them. In any case, the guy who has one for sale has an audio store, but can't even hook it up, he doesn't have the speakers necessary to do so. So even if you go there, you can't listen to it, and it's likely the only one in the country opened up that one could theoretically listen to. You spends your money and you takes your chances.