Active Speakers: The usual suspects ....

There is a new Klipsch Active out for like $2500 that is a nice looking speaker for HT and pretty cheap....should be fun to check into and see if its a winner.

I've also learned Focal makes a line of active speakers. The Solo6 Be and Twin6 Be look interesting .... however, neither one has an 'active' digital crossover. I hate to ask: Is that critically important?

I've noticed quite a few of the pro audio monitors are 'active' in terms of amplification, but they don't have a digital crossover. The DigiDesign RM1 & 2, and JBL LSR 4328s do, however, some of the other one's I am considering do not.

Does it matter?

Thank You

I hate to ask: Is that critically important?

Not critical - digital filters are more powerful and flexible than real circuits - but both need to be carefully designed - digital filters can introduce distortion that is unrelated to the music (truncation) and odd effects like pre-ringing and they can do tricks like linear phase - analog circuits however tend to produce harmonic distortion from non-linearities (less of a problem as it is related to the music). In a good design whether you have digital filtering or analog is a minor issue - as the filters will likely be simple and robust. If A to D or D to A conversion frightens you (it shouldn't) then stick to Analog Active speakers.

Emerald Physics CS-2

Check out these:

http://www.pacificislandaudio.net/

http://www.morrisonaudio.com/

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

Websites also contain good information.

Shadorne: Thanks for the in-depth info, although I'm not sure I totally understand everything.

One of the reviewers of the DigiDesign RM2 by PMC stated this: "Unlike analog active speakers, the Digidesign/PMC speaker converts the analog to digital to enable high frequency and low frequency control, as well as the crossover, bass-port emulation and speaker gain. The digital signal is converted back to analog before the final amplifier stage."

He goes on to say "Many speakers companies convert analog to digital in their active speaker systems, and I can attest that many sound very good. But I have talked to high-end engineers who say that multiple stages of digital conversion within a speaker could have a subtle, perhaps audibly degrading effect that could offset the excellent crossover performance capable in a digital design."

I believe you are saying the same thing. I am going back and forth between the Focal, DigiDesign, and possibly one of the baby PMC monitors.