Heard my friend's system, thinking of leaving hifi

01-15-08: Shadorne said:
"Yes Active Speakers can indeed surprise you that much!! No passive crossovers and dramatically reduced IMD distortion and huge dynamics is like having a veil removed from the sound compared to passive speakers."

With all due respect, I don't think that active speakers are the key to reducing IMD, increasing dynamics and removing veils. Instead, assuming a basically competent system, it's about the speaker placement and room interaction. If you get those right then it doesn't take mega-bucks to put together and incredibly transparent, dynamic and revealing system that's pleasant to listen for hour after hour.

Dave

Portugal11 said:
"Does anyone have any suggestions about any changes I could make to my system to start working towards getting to that sound? I would say that first the speakers would have to go. Something "fuller" than the 2-ways I currently have. Perhaps something with powered woofers? His sytem seemed to present all frequencies in a balanced manner. Mine seems a bit thin in comparison and certainly lacks the lower end. Any suggestions would be appreciated... "

You've got a good sized room, so the speaker changes mentioned and/or a subwoofer WILL make a significant different; HOWEVER, you'll need to properly place the speakers to get the most out of them. A precision Sumiko speaker set will all open up your speakers dramatically.

Read my review in the Review section. The speaker set will make your speakers sound as if they doubled in size and yet the midrange, imaging and transparency will improve by several orders of magnitude and you'll listen at level 20% to 30% higher without strain. Your wife will even like you system and want to sit down and listen.

The Sumiko set aims to minimize intermodulation distortion between the speakers. Give the size of your room and assuming reasonable furnishings, you probably need no room treatment. (Still, that will depend on where the speakers end up, hardness of floors, etc.).

If you need to move in stages and can't afford new speakers right now, then do the speaker set first, then add a sub and then upgrade the speakers (if you still want to).

This IS THE MAGIC sauce. Find a Sumiko dealer in you area and beg him to do a set. (You'll have to pay something, most likely since you don't own Sumiko distributed speakers, but it'll be worth every penny).

Dave

I haven't heard the Meridians since the 1990s, so maybe some miracle has occurred since then, but last time I listened they were still subject to the laws of physics and needed to be properly set up in relation to each other and relation to the room. When a non-active ("passive" is not the correct term) is set up properly it has the same potential.

Such beginning-to-end systems as Meridian DO eliminate almost all potential for component mismatches. Unfortunately the biggest mismatch in most systems is between the two speakers and the speakers vs. the room. That is better addressed with proper placement, rather than DSP, since DSP can only handle relatively minor anomalies. There is room for DSP in a well set up system, but only after IMD and resonances has been minimized by proper placement. Then, you can really only attenuate the peak resonances.

Even Stuart only talks about the POTENTIAL of active, powered systems. I agree with his statement of potential, but it's only potential. Most of the potential is available with properly set up and placed speakers. Since most systems lack this most important step, they're largely disappointing.

Active speakers are NOT 1000 times better, IMHO. They're not even two-times better than a well matched conventional system.

Dave

01-16-08: Gregm said:
Dave,
"By fat the biggest mismatch /bungling /disaster, etc is between speakers and amplification."

Interesting. I just haven't experienced that. Then again, I wouldn't try to couple a single ended, 300B tube amp with speakers like my Vienna Acoustics, which are so efficient. I've found that it only takes a little common sense to avoid a speaker/amp mismatch.

Dave