To save money! An active circuit is way more complex and costly than stringing together a bunch of caps, chokes and resistors. It requires a power supply - a part of the total cost.
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Like everything else, there are outstanding and poor examples of each type, and there are pros and cons to each. Many crossovers have to address multiple issues as well as the basic function of blocking low or high frequencies. The execution of the crossover and addressing all of it’s task is more important than the type. Many, many speakers have really dreadful crossovers and lousy parts. Even many that are well engineered still use low grade parts, so ultimately many of us have only been exposed to very poor examples of passive crossovers. Recommended viewing:
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SS amp for mid bass and will get be getting an 85w/c tube amp for mid highs. Unfortunately, I am still gathering all the pieces.. waiting on the subs and the tube amp. But just the SS to DI/SE from a Gustard r26 using bt 96khz PCM input (qobuz) sounds really good. (Just dac pre-amp out.. waiting for my rebuilt vintage pre-amp I had heard 20 years ago and always wanted) Still having issues with tidal dropping out often.. so far I have never had qobuz stream interruption . (24/96 mainly from qobuz) though my purchased 24/192 and dsd do sound better, especially at higher volumes.. to me anyway, higher volumes really showcase the amount of data getting put under the curve. Had my old klipsch bi-amped with some older amps with this active crossover and just one sub and it sounded alot better than without xover and bi-amped.. the new setup should (had better) sound even better when I have everything.. else I’ll be selling some stuff..
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Unfortunately there are some sinister reasons that active technology is not being used within the speaker industry. There are many conspiracies witthin the speaker industry and this is just one. There has been a collusion by the amplifier manufacturers and the speakers companies to ensure that the hifi marketplace is not monopolized by the speaker industry, if active technology was the only game in town. It was subsequently agreed that the amplifier companies would continue to market their mega expensive $50K amplifiers to the marketplace while the speaker companies continued to produce speakers using inferior passive technology. This would ensure that both sides would profit. Moreover the speaker companies had another secret motive. They did not want the public to interfere with the way their crossovers had been tuned. Crossover tuning is and has been a black art for a long time. No speaker company will disclose their transfer functions the same way food companies will not reveal their secret ingredients. The crossover plays a big role in defining the sound quality that a speaker produces and without it, there would be no way for the public to difefrentitate between different speakers. If, God forbid, the power to adjust the crossover got into the hands of the audiophile community, it would be game over for the speaker companies if audiophiles found that most speakers sounded about the same when their crossovers had been tuned similarly. Active technology would also negate the need for exotic expensive amplfiers since once you remove the passive technology, all speakers would be easy to drive. The hifi market is driven by profit rather than sound quality. That is the short answer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
@mike_in_nc Wrote:
I don’t think so. The speakers below have an active crossover with no power amps built in and are excellent speakers. Also, my home audio speakers are actively bi-amped with no built in power amps and sound great. A speaker, with built in power amp(s), is called a powered speaker, active or passive is in reference to a speakers crossover topology. In my opinion, amps inside speakers is not a good idea because the amps are subject to all the vibrations and air pressure inside the speaker cabinet.😎 Mike
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@ditusa -- According to the owner’s manual, those JBLs have no crossover at all and should be used with a specific external crossover and specific amplifiers. An active xover divides the signal at line level. For it to work properly, the amplifiers need to be known quantities. I have never seen a speaker that contains the xover but not the amps, though theoretically they could exist. An active bi-amped speaker typically has two amps in it. What model is yours?
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@mike_in_nc Wrote:
The crossovers are in the Crown amp design for the M-2 speakers. One Crown® iTech 5000HD power amp for each speaker, or One Crown® iTech 3x3500HD power amp for two (2) speakers. From the M-2 manual: Specifications
NewsNovember 15, 2019 April 28, 2016 June 10, 2015 January 19, 2015
JBL model 4435 with JBL 5235 active crossover and JBL #52-5130 crossover cards design for 4430,4435 studio monitors. 😎 Mike
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@mike_in_nc Wrote:
You are correct. For a bit of history, see below JBL catalogs from 1964 and 1967, they offered powered and non powered speakers with passive crossovers. See 1964 catalog page #43 JBL solid state stereo energizer. The JBL Hartsfield was the first powered speaker in 1962. In 1972 JBL made the 4350A active only. 😎 Mike https://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/catalogs/1964.htm https://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/catalogs/1967.htm
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We still await the perfect @kenjit designed and produced transducer. As much as I dearly loved the blokes from Top Gear, their brilliant entertaining critiques, no serious auto designs were ever put forth. They were not foolish enough to endeavor in practical design proposals encompassing a whole product concept. No proof of concept attempted. They were smarter than that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||