Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

The audiophile world is a fake world that is searching for something that is unscientific but using the language of science to find their way.

and the more "scientific" they get, the more they obfuscate (or fake) their ability to find their way.

@lonemountain --

Thanks for your reply.

In large rooms one wishes for DSP to create a delay of the mains to match up to the subs, but this is often not accepted due to the audible change the DSP introduces plus the barely noticeable delay created by DSP. Any offset in time makes tracking odd, sometimes difficult where one artist is in the live room and one is the control room- both being recorded at the same time. If the entire system is DSP driven that may be a different scenario, but with ATC we prefer 100% analog output to speaker.

It goes to show there are different ways, with different compromises, to achieve one’s goals. Sonically at least I couldn’t say whether I prefer the DSP route, other than it’s the approach I’m using myself - with great results, because I also find the active ATC speakers I’ve heard to sound marvelous. Obviously many variables come into play here for an assessment and comparison to take place. What I can say is that I prefer working with a DSP solution, because of the elaborate range of tools it offers for fine tuning in a very hands-on and on-the-fly manner. That said I like the consistency and non-trendy path of ATC’s with their all-analog active filter choice and class A/B amps used throughout in their active speakers, actually (the latter) what I’m about to convert to as well.

@kingharold --

Kudos on you choice of the THT’s. They were also on my initial options list of horn sub variants. I corner load my pair of tapped horns as well, so there’s prodigious headroom in my listening space to say the least - which is a good thing; you never sense the effort, the energy just swells freely to a dizzying (indeed frightening) visceral magnitude when required, or else it simply blends in smoothly. I love that sense of power and energy bandwidth at one’s disposal here, a very immersive feel, and that there’re no limitations. Horn sub variants in particular do that effectively, yet without making themselves unnecessarily "known" in the process.

A very interesting mix of perspectives in this thread! I agree with you Phusis, a lot of ways to "get there". It does baffle me why audiophiles disike amps inside the speaker, as though this is somehow more detrimental to sound than the massive hunk of copper hung on the amplifier’s outputs, completely hiding the speaker.

Brad

@thespeakerdude , it is sad to see someone who professes to be a professional be so poorly educated as to not understand basic acoustics. Do yourself a favor and go back to school. 

@mijostyn , do you really want to go there? This thread is about powered speakers, if you want to focus your post on a members system, fine. To drag this thread into a battle of "I am smarter than you" is boring. Or, why not start a thread on basic acoustics? The TACT you use is not exactly the latest technology you know? BTW, have you ever looked up the word TACT? I don't see any in your last post. FWIW I think this is a good video on acoustics: