Active Speakers - good, bad or just different?

Mrppv said:
Would love to hear the Kii Three which has gotten some great reviews, from both audiophiles and pros.

As attached as I am to my Vivid speakers, I would not be opposed to considering an active system. Actually, I did hear a rumor a while back that Vivid was pondering an active design, which could be great, but ... never heard more about it.
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The Kii is one fantastic package, possibly the best active system that I know of, and while it can be better than many systems with separates, we have systems in our store that will beat it easily, albeit at multiple times the Kii's price.

But again, for what it's supposed to do, and for what it costs, it's hard to beat the Kiis.
 
There will surely be a Mk3 and a Mk4, etc.

FM Acoustics was one of the other impressive Uber signal processing demo I heard. Linkwitz is nice but not at that level, imho.
 
I would invite anyone to hear our Goldmund Satya ($110K) system. Running with Tara Labs Grand Master PC's and two REL 212SE subs, and any input source, tape, vinyl, cd or Aurender. Would enjoy your opinion after hearing this system regarding active system capabilities.
 
I also agree that, in theory, an active system has many advantages. I heard a Linn Klimax Exakt DSM/Klimax 350 system a couple of weeks ago (https://www.linn.co.uk/music-systems/klimax). It was an amazing system. Cool when the speaker cables are basically Cat5 or 6 Ethernet cables. Small footprint single component to control the music - very sleek. Nice iPad control of the music library. The sound was spectacular. They even had a Linn Sondek turntable hooked up to it. Yes, it had to go thru A/D conversion to be played, but after hearing a number of albums thru it, I had to admit that it sounded very good. All-in-all...quite impressive.
 
The real problem now is the improvement (?) in DAC technology makes a 2 year old product redundant...

Is it really redundant...or just out of fashion...says the guy with a very special bespoke Phillips TDA 1541 chip based DAC...
 
Manuel Huber of FM? Outstanding stuff...but makes Goldmund seem cheap. His phone preamp is magical.
 
I am in Switzerland...but met him and heard his stuff in Warsaw at Adam's show.
 
Regarding passive speakers, I heard great stuff about the LumenWhite prototype Kyara compact loudspeaker.
 
I'm an apologist that the simpler the better. For me to have active speakers is not a limitation, on the contrary.
The ideal situation is to have a speaker with only the drivers inside and use an external active crossover, so the components are not affected by the vibrations and we have all the freedom to choose the amplifiers that we want to connect directly to the speakers.
With an external active crossover, in addition to using the frequency cuts recommended by the manufacturer of the speaker we can optimize the cutoff frequency and gain of each driver to better tune the system and integrate it better with our room.
In this context the quality of the speaker cables and the amplifiers is not so critical because the absence of components between amplifier and speaker compensates for any loss of quality due to less investment in cables and amplification.
Most people have two- or three-way speakers, that is, you only need 2 stereo amplifiers in the first case and 3 stereo or 2 amplifiers with 3 channels in the second case.
I must remember that those who have speakers with passive crossovers easily turns them into speakers without electronics.
 
Rob181 said:
The real problem now is the improvement (?) in DAC technology makes a 2 year old product redundant...
Is it really redundant...or just out of fashion......
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I don't think that redundant is the word that you are looking for.

redundant
1. Exceeding what is necessary or natural; superfluous.
2. Needlessly repetitive; verbose.

But all a newer DSP DAC does is give a loudspeaker designer better tools to design with.
 
Speedskater said:
I don't think that redundant is the word that you are looking for.

redundant
1. Exceeding what is necessary or natural; superfluous.
2. Needlessly repetitive; verbose.

But all a newer DSP DAC does is give a loudspeaker designer better tools to design with.
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Obsolete perhaps?

If they use FPGA technology, perhaps they can give it a longer life.


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I do not see what DSP, room correction or other equalizations have to do with active vs passive speakers.

When I look at active speakers most just have a analogue input. The idea of active speakers is attractive but active speakers with a acceptable WaF and acceptable price are rare.

I hope one day I'll have the chance to listen to some active speakers like the ME-Geithain 901K.
 
The other problem with active speakers is boredom of the almost flawless mate.
I've had my ATC SCM150 actives with C6 sub since 2005. I can honestly say I miss the excitement I think I remember in the 20 years prior to this purchase. Buying speakers and mix and matching power sources. With active's it's all been done and done right out of the box.
I've thought of changing and I've looked. At Axpona and CES I auditioned, Grand Utopia's, Wilson's, Magico, KEF Blade's, all which sounded good and somewhat different but not better than what I hear at home.
So I'll sit on my hands till I get the urge again to wander.
Go active and you'll never go back.👍🏻
 
a.wayne said:
Yes, I know there is one local to me , BTW Manny has been to Sabina via Jacks hill .... :)
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I read too quickly. I now get what you were saying. LoL

BTW, I was at Joe manleys house last Sunday listing to his sweet Apogee setup! Next time I will try to look you up!
 
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