Active Speakers

[Andrew Everard]

Although the crossover point (the frequency at which the crossover 'hands over' from one drive unit to another) can vary, the small size of treble drive units (required for lightness and speed in order to handle high-frequency oscillation) means they're not suited to the 'heavy lifting' of air-shifting required to reproduce lower frequencies.

That said, there are some speaker designs which use single full-range drivers to handle the entire frequency range, and of course speakers with more than two drivers: some use a treble driver, a midband one and a bass unit, while others may even have a high bass and low bass driver. Plus of course some designs have a separate supertweeter which kicks in above the conventional treble unit.

There are also some designs with subwoofers built-in, rolling in below the main bass driver. Indeed, some designs, such as hybrid electrostatics, can use an active subwoofer built-in, with higher frequencies passed to the speaker's main driver.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, I was just looking for some alternatives to A2/A5's (powered or active) that would be good for listening to music and not always near field. I do understand the diference now though! I'm still not sure if active speakers are really more for near field listening or just better speakers generally than powered speakers?

 

[Craig M.]

Wow, I was just looking for some alternatives to A2/A5's (powered or active) that would be good for listening to music and not always near field. I do understand the diference now though! I'm still not sure if active speakers are really more for near field listening or just better speakers generally than powered speakers?

there is no reason for an active to be better suited to near field listening only. a lot are setup for near field because they will be used on a mixing desk - actives are more common in the pro audio world. if all else is equal, a speaker should be better with an active crossover than a passive.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

I'm still not sure if active speakers are really more for near field listening or just better speakers generally than powered speakers?

nearfield is anything within 3m between speakers to listener. so essentially most of us with living rooms of 4m*5m is listening to music in nearfield "environment".

and yes, actives are better than passives (or powered for that matter). basically you need to spend a lot more money on power amp + passive speakers than what you need to spend on actives to achieve certain SQ level.

first of all power utilization; 2 low powered amps connected directly to drivers will give you more dynamic range than one amp of power rating which is sum of those low power amps ratings driving passive crossover and subsequently drivers, i.e. 50W + 50W in active > 100W per channel in passive.

2. in actives power amps are less likely to show signs of intermodulation distortion because they need to amplify only narrow part of full range bandwidth. it's not really a problem with high class amps but you will not find such in budget side of market.

3. there are problems with passive crossovers that are easily solved using active crossovers. there's too much explanation here regarding electical phase angle shift in croosoevers of 2nd and higher orders. suffice to say; a passive crossover of 2nd and higher order is inherently flawed in comparison with active crossovers and 1st order crossovers are not so commonly used due to problems that drivers would face.

4. componets used. a good passive crossover needs very expensive componets in order to minimise distortion applied by crossover network. active crossover network adds some distortion too but quality components for active crossover need not to be as expensive. the difference lies in the fact that active xovers deal with line level signal(low voltage) and passive xovers deal with speaker level signal (high voltage).

that's briefly why actives are better than passives/ powered.

 

[Craig M.]

that pretty much sums it up. i would also add that the power amps damping factor is applied directly to the driver, instead of being largely lost in the passive crossover - resulting in better control of the drive unit. they should be more popular for hifi then they are, really.

i bet you wished you hadn't asked, now.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm glad I asked and really appreciate the comments. Like I say I am looking to minimize my hifi footprint and its a whole new world to me so really interesting. I only ripped my first CD this year (but at least its FLAC) and started using an audinst DAC which is possibly slightly better than playing CD's on my Linn Classik (maybe just different but I prefer) so very open to new ideas. Only playing through KEF Q35.2's so fairly cheap speakers.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Like I say I am looking to minimize my hifi footprint and its a whole new world to me so really interesting. I only ripped my first CD this year (but at least its FLAC)

hey dvouchers

there's another fresh thread regerding active speakers in hi-fi section

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/active-speakers-3

I think 3rd post might be of interest to you. it seems that those ARTists sport a USB input in which case all you need to go is a pair of those speakers and a laptop (speaking of small footprint). there has to be master and slave speaker so you'll have preamp (hence volume control) in master speaker as well.

yeah, and stick to FLAC or WAV. some people report that Apples algorithms are audibly worse. I personally can't comment just passing what I've red.

 

[audioaffair]

Differences in terminology aside, one can use Audioengine A2 or A5 speakers for the application in question and indeed the A2s are some of the best little speakers for a PC. For something a little more impressive the Aktimate Mini or even Aktimate Maxi take some beating and look/feel quite special too.

 

[Anonymous]