DSP Active Crossover

It would be cool if some guys building analog preamps  implemented some high quality analog active crossover features (defeatable, of course) in their analog boxes....maybe accuphase, schiit, yamaha, angela yeung, whomever...

I am sure a considerable number of guys would pick a preamp with such analog features over some competitor who doesn’t have anything. 

@deep_333 - Yeah, I have put this on the back burner for now. I’m having too much fun experimenting with different lDIY line stages and amps. My latest EML-20A DHT based line stage has made a significant improvement - I love the way this sounds. 

At some point when I finish some of my other projects, I’m going to try an analog active-crossover and use Roon’s DSP functionality to make any corrections necessary. 

@deep_333  - Parasound had probably the most flexible and innovative preamps in regards to this.  The P7 for instance was stellar. 

@erik_squires I think that parasound came with analog bass management (i.e. had crossover limits to the subwoofer range) but, got confused along the way with the multichannel slant....i get the feeling it made some hometheater dude pick it up and say "where’s my hdmi??!!". The average hifi dude probably never even looked at it....grand opening, grand closing....

The hifi purist stereo analog preamp box guy who markets himself as the "heart of the hifi system" instead needed to say...."Oh, you have a pair of subwoofers...look, here is analog hifi bass management for you so you can correctly pull in your subwoofers and....you want to do some stereo 2 way or 3 way active all analog with 500hz and 1800hz too whilst you spun your turntable?? Here it is...you keep your creme de la creme terminator dac or turntable's output, as is, and send our outputs to your creme de la creme power amps all analog"

That would have been a homerun for the "heart of the hifi system", not just another rinse/repeat box with a different polish on the chassis.

Maybe, i’ll write a letter to the schiit guy.

@deep_333  - Parasound had probably the most flexible and innovative preamps in regards to this.  The P7 for instance was stellar. 

@jaytor wrote:

At some point when I finish some of my other projects, I’m going to try an analog active-crossover and use Roon’s DSP functionality to make any corrections necessary. 

Kind of the same thing I’m doing now; previously I used my Xilica digital DSP for both the main speakers and subs as an active digital crossover, but my new (used) main speakers have built-in amps and active analogue crossover, so the Xilica unit is now only used over the subs and high-passing the main speakers. I may use the Xilica for slight PEQ corrections over the mains eventually, but it’s still early days. 

My incentive to replace my previous main speaker system with this one wasn’t to pursue analogue active per se, I might add, but rather design elements of the speakers themselves. A great result can be had with either active option, be it a quality DSP-based (with or without an additional A/D to D/A conversion step) or analogue variety. However discerning whether there might an inherent advantage with an analogue active approach in itself like the Stage Accompany design I’m using now vs. the Xilica is difficult to assess due to many variables. 

@phusis I have been playing with the cheap Behringers units, both digital and analog versions for a lil bit.

PEQ (which can be a matter of taste), crossover and levels aside,....the critical parameter is individual driver delays, optimal phase characteristics for a 3 way horn at least...which decides whether that magic happened or not. It seems a bit of a science in itself how/why a manufacturer arrived at their optimal values (looking at how different pro speaker manufacturers have done it).

It would be silly, for example, to do a lascala without it.

Even the cheap analog behringer unit has one LF delay knob. It is missing one for the MF, HF.  If a analog crossover didn’t come with individual delay knobs period ( sublime, marchand, whatever), might as well throw it in the discard pile.

I suppose one might as well imagine the digital units to be the DAC itself (pay up a bit for that reason) and come into it with a high quality AES digital input.

but rather design elements of the speakers themselves. A great result can be had with either active option, be it a quality DSP-based (with or without an additional A/D to D/A conversion step) or analogue variety. However discerning whether there might an inherent advantage with an analogue active approach in itself like the Stage Accompany design I’m using now vs. the Xilica is difficult to assess due to many variables.