I've been around the high end audio scene since about 1982, in one way or another, and have hands on dealt with so so so many speaker desings and technologies. I would personally like to see the new trend in loudspeaker manufacturing go towards "active" designs. The benefits and potential improvements in speaker performance fundamentally, from what we can all obviously pick up on, are ready to be realized! We've been through just about all the possible improvements we're every likely going to realize from the basic "passive" loudspeaker designs, that have been done over and over and over again, throughout the years, with variations here and there of course. Active speaker pottentially offer much better dynamic realism and transparency, less distortion, better spead, detail, etc. A number of speaker manufacturers have displayed what is possible, and the dramatic improvements that good active designs offer. From here, UP IS ACTIVE,...in my oppinion.
A couple of years ago, I was at Dunlavy Audio for a factory tour. I spent considerable time with John Dunlavy, and one of the questions I asked him was why more loudspeaker manufacturers don't make "active" designs? His reply was, he personally didn't think it was necessary, and that it was rather cost prohibitive and difficult to do well. Putting amps inside speakers, he said, was difficult to deal with, and most people didn't want to have to buy an external amp/crossover/speaker set-up, but rather wanted to pick their own gear anyway!..I've heard similar from many speaker designers. Bottom line, "passive" speakers are easier and cheeper to design.
We've since embraced the "powered/active" built in subwoofer thing in a lot of speaker designs as of the last few years. I think it's just a matter of time before we see more manufactures doing completely active speakers.
At the very least,I would like to see more higher end speaker using active woofers. This still increases dynamics and such on it's own.
The surgence of home theater, benefits of active subwoofers, crossing over to speakers at higher frequencies is of vital importance for passive monitor design in that arena at the very least. But for purrist high end sound reproduction or music, this scenario has it's limitations. No "passive" full range loudspeakers that I'm awar of can do justic to full range Dolby digital or DTS soundtracks, that is CERTAIN! The dynamics are just too great, and do best reproduced by "active" powered woofers down lower. I've heard first hand, that active monitors with active powered subs is even better!!!!
Now what we need is for more and more people to jump on that bandwaggon, and start creating more offerings of "full range" active's that will be adequate for music listening.
Lynn, Meridian, ATC, and active's with some obvious benefits over passive's. Horn speakers offer some decided advantages with increased dynamic effeciency...but horns have some serious dissadvantages, as we all know.
We've largely embraced traditional Piston driver design speakers, and the only way up from here is going to be going active. All the electrnic upgrades isn't going to improve things any more. We need more dirrect interaction fro amps and drivers if we want to see some improvement.
It's amazing that passive speakers sound as descent as they do, considering all the dissadvantages that passive crossovers induce. Going active is the next logical step really. Hey, the pro audio industry has realized this long ago...it's time for mainstream home audio to realize the same.
If we're going to
A couple of years ago, I was at Dunlavy Audio for a factory tour. I spent considerable time with John Dunlavy, and one of the questions I asked him was why more loudspeaker manufacturers don't make "active" designs? His reply was, he personally didn't think it was necessary, and that it was rather cost prohibitive and difficult to do well. Putting amps inside speakers, he said, was difficult to deal with, and most people didn't want to have to buy an external amp/crossover/speaker set-up, but rather wanted to pick their own gear anyway!..I've heard similar from many speaker designers. Bottom line, "passive" speakers are easier and cheeper to design.
We've since embraced the "powered/active" built in subwoofer thing in a lot of speaker designs as of the last few years. I think it's just a matter of time before we see more manufactures doing completely active speakers.
At the very least,I would like to see more higher end speaker using active woofers. This still increases dynamics and such on it's own.
The surgence of home theater, benefits of active subwoofers, crossing over to speakers at higher frequencies is of vital importance for passive monitor design in that arena at the very least. But for purrist high end sound reproduction or music, this scenario has it's limitations. No "passive" full range loudspeakers that I'm awar of can do justic to full range Dolby digital or DTS soundtracks, that is CERTAIN! The dynamics are just too great, and do best reproduced by "active" powered woofers down lower. I've heard first hand, that active monitors with active powered subs is even better!!!!
Now what we need is for more and more people to jump on that bandwaggon, and start creating more offerings of "full range" active's that will be adequate for music listening.
Lynn, Meridian, ATC, and active's with some obvious benefits over passive's. Horn speakers offer some decided advantages with increased dynamic effeciency...but horns have some serious dissadvantages, as we all know.
We've largely embraced traditional Piston driver design speakers, and the only way up from here is going to be going active. All the electrnic upgrades isn't going to improve things any more. We need more dirrect interaction fro amps and drivers if we want to see some improvement.
It's amazing that passive speakers sound as descent as they do, considering all the dissadvantages that passive crossovers induce. Going active is the next logical step really. Hey, the pro audio industry has realized this long ago...it's time for mainstream home audio to realize the same.
If we're going to