Passive vs Active...Again!
My wife and I have made the rounds and have listened to numerous speakers now, not as many as we'd like, but as many as we could within a 3-hour drive. We liked some both active and passive, but it seems most of the active speakers we saw are not that pleasing to the eye (eg: Genelecs).
Not having a dedicated listening room, our room itself is a big problem. We have lots of hard surfaces to deal with.
If we go with passive speakers and the associated gear to go with it, we will need to spend a whole bunch of money on acoustic treatments.
We have a ton of artwork as well and with already limited wall space, we would rather look at the art than a bunch of sound-absorbing panels.
So here's my question: Will active speakers, that may come in cheaper, with room correction software (DSP) be able to tame the sound to a pleasing level in my lively room, or do I go with passives and break out the Rockwool!
Just a side note, I had some Martin Logan Spires in a very similar style room, that was much larger with little acoustic treatments and they sounded pretty good. But in this house I don't have the room to pull the speakers 3 feet of the back wall.
I know there is no perfect answer here, but appreciate any feedback, thanks.
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- 68 posts total
@high-amp You might want to look at a set of Swarm subs from Audiokinesis. They will allow you to get the bass right without room treatment or DSP. This is because they can break up standing waves that you would otherwise have with only 2 speakers that can make bass. Standing waves can cause a lack of bass at the listening position. The Swarms are designed to be as close to the wall as possible! Because of the increase you get inside the room boundary effect, Duke designed the speakers to roll off against that increase, resulting in a small sub flat to 20Hz. The ear tends to equalize according to what frequencies are present. If there is no bass the ear will cause that to tilt to the high end. So if you get the bass right the highs will be more relaxed. The upside of this is you can work with a much smaller speaker setup for your mains and they can be passive or active. |
atmasphere - Thanks Ralph. I'm aware of the Swarm. I will look into it further as I progress. |
OP you mentioned you had a lot of art work. I guess it is hanging on the walls. Unless there are a lot of glass on the wall surfaces, you’ll be better off. I’ve seen more than one person with a tons of hanging things from the walls, and ceiling. Painting on canvas with different types of frames will collect frequencies differently than others. When the frames is convex with raised crown borders vs flat stock, they act a lot different. The second is all of the canvas have air space behind them. They act with a certain amount of absorption and diffusion as long as there is not a lot of glass (there is a place for that too). I have seen rooms over dampened just because of too much stuff in a room, and not a single piece of acoustic anything anywhere to be seen. LOL Heavy curtains are what I’ve always suggested and used. WHY? An untreated long wall with high ceiling is a hard thing to tame. Being able to open or close curtains over a long bare (or covered with glass) wall works wonders and you can adjust the amount of dampening too. I say the same thing every time. Add as much room treatment as you can stand, then start at the bottom and work your way up. BASS (sub) first, NOT last. Now you can buy just about any speaker you want and it will work. It has to be a real pile to not work from 80hz and greater with ok measurements. How hard is it to get a speaker to reproduce 100hz to 18khz. 90+ on sensitivity? Personally I used 92% sensitivity wired @ 12 ohms and have for over 20 years on my mains. There is no bass in my mains at all. Kind of defeats the purpose of vibration control if the box is banging away beating on mids and tweeters in the same box.. A different box make good sense to me.. At least be able to limit the mains to 80hz and above.. DBA, Swarm, Second (after room treatment), not last.. If you really want to get fancy go with a OB or IB servo sub system. I use GRs 12" dual OB Servo subs. Happy hunting. Regards I’m BACK. Give me your cloths, Sarah Conner, Where is Sarah Conner? |
1. GIK Acoustics makes panels which can have anything you like printed on them. 2. You may want speakers with limited dispersion. Horns and ESL's are good choices. 3. Plan on a good EQ solution for the bottom end. I'd recommend something like an Anthem receiver or similar with built in automatic subwoofer/room EQ
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- 68 posts total