Audiolabyrinth
can you share some of the tweak's Dan D Agostino shared with you, I have talked to him myself on the phone over the last few month's, do tell please.
Hi Audiolabyrinth
Sure, but first let me preface this. In all my conversations with amplifier (power) guys there has always been a common theme in the talks. They all want to discuss power and how to control more with the speakers. Whether they are trying to do this with as little power as possible, or with as much as can be made. Both extremes. You know what they say - power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. :^)
The tweaks Dan discussed revolved around his setup of his then Matrix 800 speaker system. How best to say this. These speakers are like zombies on steroids, a freak of nature kind of speaker system. A one time only offering from B&W under John Bowers regime - the (B) in B&W.
Dan talked about this total end user control of the speakers. The matrix 800 can be a sort of speaker brothel in this way. Let me explain. The driver system in each matrix 800 speaker (two woofer cabinets, 2 mids, 1 tweeter) are isolated in their own cabinets with their own easy to get at crossover. Unbolt the back plates - there are the crossovers for each driver. Naked and open access. You don't even need your wifes help to lay the speakers on their side or upside down. There are the crossovers staring at you in the face. These days some manufacturers epoxy up these areas so not to tamper with them. What were the British thinking. Very dangerous for a curious audiophile. Which is why for me in my current "music lover" happily listening to music phase, these easy to access speaker guts pose no threat. Sorry for digressing....
So four separate external crossovers per speaker allows for quad wiring (which I am doing), and bi, tri and quad amping if you really want to go crazy.
I am also using Dan's Krell Bass Alignment filters which I preferred to two other 3rd party ones I have used.
He discussed bringing in as many
Krell Crossovers as needed to do this bi, tri, quad amping and bypassing the internal crossovers.
Here is a
Pass Labs version as well for comparison.
With the above you can control the volume coming out of each driver separately. You can therefore based on your own ears and your room, make the speaker highly resolving, or sweet and warm. Switch back and forth with different genres maybe. Go crazy. It allows for dialing in your preferences with fewer room treatments, and a little lesser placement worries. This sounds all good especially if its a shared room with your wife. But .....she would probably never allow these matrix 800 in the house to begin with.
Now a problem I see is you are going from the matrix 800's unique high quality passive crossovers, to a much more complicated quality multi active crossover/s system. I've heard others say transparency takes a hit. I don't know the answer to this. It probably becomes a YMMV type of thing. You need to hear it in your own room.
As it is I have a dedicated space and these room friendly monsters were very easy to dial in. At 93db 4 ohm design the Krell 600 amp is barely cruising even on the high spls.
Cheers