The active speakers club

[kungula]

if money does not matter I will go for the audio research Dac which is probably the best Dac on the planet for the time being

http://www.audio-reference.de/content/audioresearch/reference_serie/dac/referencedac.html?dp=0

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

if money does not matter I will go for the audio research Dac which is probably the best Dac on the planet for the time being

that's quite a sweeping statement. how can you support it?

 

[AlmaataKZ]

EB Acoustics is developing a 3-way active, EB4:

<p>Now, I'm not flying off at a tangent before some of you have a prod at me but I have costed EB3 and EB4.</p><p>EB3 will be £280.00 each. Plus delivery. Available in Oak and Black Oak. Delivery time from receipt of deposit will be 5-6 weeks.</p><p>EB4 will consist of:</p><p>2 bass units, 3" soft Dome midrange ( ATC I hope ), and a tweeter. All the electronic gubbins in the back as previously mentioned. Closed box design like EB2. 1000mm tall, 225mm wide and 300mm deep.  Price £3500 per pair plus delivery. Again, deposit of 10% and a 6 week lead time.</p><p>EB4 not available until september time.</p><p>Right. I'm done.</p>

from this thread:

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/to-richard-allen-eb2?page=7

Good news, given that the choice of domestic actives is so limited.

Will be very iinteresting to see and hear.

 

[shropshire lad]

I could be showing my ignorance here , but are you sure the EB4 is going to be a 3-way active ? I got the impression that the EB5 , whenever that arrives , would be the 3-way active .

 

[BenLaw]

I could be showing my ignorance here , but are you sure the EB4 is going to be a 3-way active ? I got the impression that the EB5 , whenever that arrives , would be the 3-way active .

Definitely EB4, no mention of an EB5 yet!

 

[VoodooDoctor]

Another interesting option for feeding your actives:

Leema Elements DAC/Pre amp

Compact, plenty of inputs, remote vol control, silver or black

Put a mac mini or Squeezebox Touch on it and you are sorted.

I have one of the Leema DAC's and run it from an iMac. It's a very good DAC. Better than the Benchmark DAC I had before. It creates a really broad soundstage. Worth an audition.

 

[shropshire lad]

I could be showing my ignorance here , but are you sure the EB4 is going to be a 3-way active ? I got the impression that the EB5 , whenever that arrives , would be the 3-way active .

Definitely EB4, no mention of an EB5 yet!

EB5s have been mentioned briefly by Richard in one of his posts on that thread , with the EB4s being two way and the EB5s being three way , but it seems things have changed since he posted that .

 

[kungula]

intersting active speakers ME Geithain, especially the RL 940 are worth considering if you 'll find a dealer

http://www.me-geithain-audio.de/me-geithain/aktiv-lautsprecher.html

 

[Anonymous]

An interesting challenge for all you Active fans out there....

I have a Linn Akurate DS direct XLR feed to a pair of Genelec 8040A for hifi - an amazing system which i absolutely love and would recommend to anyone. Do not doubt the Actives, just do it! I previously had a Cyrus/PMC combo which i loved also, but this is a huge huge step forward all round.

I am also lucky enough to have a seperate lounge with AV set-up - 5.1 with B&W-M1 / REL 205 / Denon 2500BT Blu-Ray Transport & Yamaha RX-V2067, plus SKY.

A house move means i will have one room rather than two [sob sob i hear you cry!] so some sort of rationalisation looks like it could be on the cards.

What i have thought about i how i can add additional Genelecs - another 8040A for centre & perhaps 8030A or smaller for rears, getting rid of the Yamaha & B&W M1's, perhaps also swap in the matching Genelec Sub.

So the question is what AV pre-amp / control processor is available that will feed active 5.1 via XLR, while also working with my Transport only Denon which delivers all BR audio for decoding in the processor; so needless to say it will need to have full DTS Master Audio plus rest of the BR codecs etc.

And not only that but i would need someway of connecting the Linn Akurate to the Processor, so that i could switch to Linn / Genelec for regular Stereo using the L/R fronts.

I have obviously had a look around & it seems it could be a tricky task - there are products out there but not sure if they tick all the boxes, just some or the other.

Just a pipe dream, or anyone got any suggestions for me?

Don't care if its pro world kit, i have already got used to studio appearance of the Genelec's - any options/suggestions considered!

Cheers.....

 

[richardw42]

I'm considering something very similar, and switching to an active 4.0 or 4.1 using my RXV3067 and AVI speakers.

I understand I connect from the pre outs on the Yamaha to the analogue in of the speakers. My front speakers are only 5-6 feet apart so could do without a centre.

PI then rerun the set up on the Yam.

re the Linn, you could connect via the amps audio inputs, optical or analogue, or direct to speakers ( I don't know what the speaker inputs are).

Pall my sources go in to the 3067 as they currently do.

 

[Overdose]

Saffire Pro 24 is what I have. It'll do 5.1, but how you set it up, I haven't looked into, I only use it in stereo configuration.

It will be done in the software and then can be 'set' to hold that config every time you restart.

Quite a versatile piece of equipment really, given what spending £400 on a purely hifi DAC gets you.

And my apologies for taking this further off track.

 

[BenLaw]

An interesting challenge for all you Active fans out there....

I have a Linn Akurate DS direct XLR feed to a pair of Genelec 8040A for hifi - an amazing system which i absolutely love and would recommend to anyone. Do not doubt the Actives, just do it! I previously had a Cyrus/PMC combo which i loved also, but this is a huge huge step forward all round.

I am also lucky enough to have a seperate lounge with AV set-up - 5.1 with B&W-M1 / REL 205 / Denon 2500BT Blu-Ray Transport & Yamaha RX-V2067, plus SKY.

A house move means i will have one room rather than two [sob sob i hear you cry!] so some sort of rationalisation looks like it could be on the cards.

What i have thought about i how i can add additional Genelecs - another 8040A for centre & perhaps 8030A or smaller for rears, getting rid of the Yamaha & B&W M1's, perhaps also swap in the matching Genelec Sub.

So the question is what AV pre-amp / control processor is available that will feed active 5.1 via XLR, while also working with my Transport only Denon which delivers all BR audio for decoding in the processor; so needless to say it will need to have full DTS Master Audio plus rest of the BR codecs etc.

And not only that but i would need someway of connecting the Linn Akurate to the Processor, so that i could switch to Linn / Genelec for regular Stereo using the L/R fronts.

I have obviously had a look around & it seems it could be a tricky task - there are products out there but not sure if they tick all the boxes, just some or the other.

Just a pipe dream, or anyone got any suggestions for me?

Don't care if its pro world kit, i have already got used to studio appearance of the Genelec's - any options/suggestions considered!

Cheers.....

You could use any receiver with pre-outs and use cables with rca terminations at one end and xlr at the other. Better would be any pre pro with a similar setup. Best yet is something like this, which has xlr pre outs. Look for pre pros from Marantz, Anthem, Primare, Arcam also.

 

[AlmaataKZ]

This one also an option but there must be some further choice of av processors with xlr outs and your akurate would be just one of the sources using one of the inputs.

http://www.marantz.co.uk/uk/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=HomeTheatre&SubCatId=AVControlAmplifier&ProductId=AV7005

 

[Ajani]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/digital_music_solutions/x300a/overview/index.html

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Ooooh, very interesting!

 

[John Duncan]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/digital_music_solutions/x300a/overview/index.html

Oh my...

 

[moon]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/digital_music_solutions/x300a/overview/index.html

Oh my...

oh ****** me they look really really nice......usb input...matt black :O

 

[steve_1979]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

I didn't see that one coming. KEF active speakers with a built in DAC - very cool. 8)

How do you adjust the volume on them?

 

[moon]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

I didn't see that one coming. KEF active speakers with a built in DAC - very cool. 8)

How do you adjust the volume on them?

telepathy

 

[Dave_]

How do you adjust the volume on them?

Controls Balance control

AUX volume control

USB volume control on PC

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/digital_music_solutions/x300a/fact_sheets/X300A_group/X300A/index.html

 

[Ajani]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

I didn't see that one coming. KEF active speakers with a built in DAC - very cool. 8)

I'm not sure anyone saw that one coming. Perhaps the active speakers club isn't a crazy cult afterall? :rofl:

 

[AlmaataKZ]

KEF has just released their entry in the active speaker market: The X300A (24/96 USB DAC) Just 800 USD (no idea about pricing in UK).

I didn't see that one coming. KEF active speakers with a built in DAC - very cool. 8)

I'm not sure anyone saw that one coming. Perhaps the active speakers club isn't a crazy cult afterall? :rofl:

Shhhhhhh! Don't tell anybody!

 

[Ajani]

I forgot to mention that I learned of the new KEF's from a first review of them. I won't provide a link but if you just google the KEF X300A you should find Tone Publication's review. For the record: they loved it.

 

[AlmaataKZ]

These b&w models all look like active designs.

http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/Wireless-Music-Systems/Wireless-Music-Systems/

 

[chebby]

These b&w models all look like active designs.

http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/Wireless-Music-Systems/Wireless-Music-Systems/

The specs (A7) are ambiguous. "Class D amplifier" (singular) and then the amplifier output (singular again) for each set of drivers.

"Digital signal processing". That could imply passive or active configurations.

Which bit of the B&W site mentions they are 'true' active with an amp dedicated to each set of drivers (and sub)?

[EDIT] Not a challenge by the way. Just interested.