Anybody have an actively multi-amplified system?


Hello,

I am one of the very rare breeds that has a fully active system, 6 Jeff Rowland monoblocks running Klipschorns with an Accuphase F-25V electronic crossover in front of the amplifiers, and the passive crossovers taken out of the speakers. It sounds absolutely phenomenal, like nothing else out there. I've been in the business 35 years and have yet to meet anyone (in home audio at least) who has done something similar. It's done all the time in pro audio, yet nobody talks about it for home use. It's widely known that an actively amplified setup simply IS better than any passively crossed over speaker, since the dividing is done before the amplifier, each amplifier only amplifies a certain frequency range, and then the output of the amplifier is connected directly to an individual driver with nothing in between. If anyone has such a setup, is interested in learning more about one, or wants to throw in their 2 cents, please do! It's about time we did talk about this, and I can't believe in all these years more companies haven't actively (pun intended) embraced this type of setup. Also, if anyone has crossover cards for an F-25V crossover, please let me know!!!
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While putting some components together for a system my mind tells me to go the actice route. Mind you, I've not had anything since my MCintosh 275s, JBL Pyramids and Winn Strain Guage cartridge in the 80s. So now for starters it's a Clearaudio Maestro cart w/ BAT VK P10 SE.and Zesto Leto pre.
Jim Smith (Get Better Sound) lives nearby so he's a resourse. My question is: If I tri-amp or bi-amp a set of Salk Soundscape 12s how do I get the right amps? Jim says in his book that for coherence identical amps are best. If I use 200-300 watts on the bottom end do I need the same for the mid-highs? On the other hand, Dennis Murphy crossovers in the Salks are nothing to sneeze at.
I have a pair of Mcintosh MC 60s tube amps being reworked by DeWick. How do I match amps for coherence?
Yes - if you want loud and clean at the same time, it is the best way to go. I have Mackie HR624mk2 monitors - internally biamped with 100w for the woofers and 40w for the tweeters - and a Velodyne powered subwoofer. Tri-amped! When I started fooling around with stereo 40 years ago, I never would have expected to have a tri-amp setup. My current setup is much more dynamic than the B&Ws with the 400 watt amp I had before.
I use a 4-way Accuphase F-25.
Fully active system with multi amps is simply a whole other level.
I recently upgraded my front cabinets with 3-way stereo active crossovers, new tweeters and mid range drivers. My front end is a Proceed transport, AVP2+6, AMP5 and Lexicon LX-7. The SEA Millennium tweeters and SEAS 8” woven CURV mid bass drivers use the 125 watt AMP5, and the original 15” bass driver the 250 watt Lexicon.

Active crossovers greatly unleashed the drivers clearest musicality, plus, they seemed to remove problems I thought were upstream. The AC’s separate bass, mid, and tweeter volume controllers are the cleanest tone controls I’ve ever used to correct poor recordings. The Cello Palette owners manual has a good reference on how to adjust high end tone controls. The SEAS Millennium tweets and the 8” woven CURV woofer-mid is a seamless dynamic combo. Their active XO’s are set at 300 and 2K.
Hello
I am late to this conversation, never-the-less...
I have what I call a 5.1 active crossover stereo system and have had it for at least two decades.  50 hz and below summed to a Hartley 24" driven by a McIntosh MC2100  (used in mono).  50 to 250 goes to 15" Oaktrons formerly driven by an old PSE studio 4 amp, but now two PSE mono blocks. 250 to 800 go to Hartley 10" drivers driven by another old PSE studio 4 amp.. 800 to 3500 goes thru a Leak Stereo 20 to two per side of old Philips flat midranges. Finally 3500 and above goes to a locally built (Denver) "Velvet touch" EL84 amplifier that drives a Hartley "blue ring" tweeter with a passive crossover to also drive JBL Ultra tweeters, one each per side.  With the exception of the locally built amp which I bought new from the creator/builder all my amps were/are hand-me-downs purchased used, as well as some of the drivers.  The crossover built with Decoursey cards and my two way, split pre-amp (tubes and FET) were both built in Denver by the same guy who built the tube amp.  So I have two outputs from my pre-amp the tubes come out 800 hz and above and the FET section does below 800hz.
While it is not as simple as a full range system as far as sound quality goes this cannot be beat.  I have heard many system both full range and as many as eight way active crossovers and I think an active crossover is superior in sound quality.  My system while using relatively inexpensive used amps is the best stereo that almost all my friends have ever heard, and they say so.  It is more complicated and of course using tube amps is a bit of a sacrifice in that department.
My first experience with active crossovers was to go two way and I used my 15" Oaktrons to do 250 and below and my three way boxes to do above that and had two hand-me -down stereo amps and what a change and a big bang for the buck.  I used the two way until I decided to mount a Hartley 24" driver into my up till then unused fireplace.  the I decided to go with the five way with a passive crossover in the high pass. It does require many more interconnects and depending on your feelings about them it could get expensive.  I use Audio Magic higher end interconnects from my Levinson DAC to the preamp and a couple of old D'Lin (Silver Audio) silver Bullets from pre-amp to crossover. The five sets out of crossover are a Hodge podge of old Vampires and Monsters.  They are less important and sound fine.
Final thoughts are that a five way system is going to cost more than a mediocre full range but one can find pretty good used amps out there and with this arrangement one does not need anything bigger than 100 WPC and a no more that 20 WPC required on the 800 hz and above unless one has very inefficient speaker drivers.  The crossover can get a bit pricey but I have at least two decades of use on mine without one issue, it has never been to the shop.  My split pre-amp was not cheap but again it has never let me down and I have had the same Mullard tubes in it for  fifteen to twenty years and they are still going strong, partially because they are not doing too much work.