The job of the crossover is to divide the full range signal into ranges that the individual speakers are designed to handle. Using a two way speaker as an example, high frequencies to the tweeters, low frequencies to the woofers.
A passive unit contains only passive components, i.e. resistors, capacitors, inductors, switches, wire, etc. These are located after the power amp, usually inside the speakers. The high pass and low pass sections are sometimes accessed separately via two pairs of input terminals allowing the speaker to be hooked up in a bi-wire configuration. Bi-wire is one power amp with two sets of speaker wires.
An active unit is made with devices that can amplify the signal, i.e. tubes and/or transistors. The signal is divided after the preamp and before the power amp so it requires four channels of amplification that are attached to the individual drivers. two channels for the high frequencies and two more for the low. This requires a speaker that is designed to have it's internal crossover disabled or modifying the speakers. This is bi-amping.
Another option for bi-amping is to use four amplifier channels running full range hooked to the bi-wire terminals and allowing the internal passive crossover to allow only the desired frequencies to reach the drivers.
A passive unit contains only passive components, i.e. resistors, capacitors, inductors, switches, wire, etc. These are located after the power amp, usually inside the speakers. The high pass and low pass sections are sometimes accessed separately via two pairs of input terminals allowing the speaker to be hooked up in a bi-wire configuration. Bi-wire is one power amp with two sets of speaker wires.
An active unit is made with devices that can amplify the signal, i.e. tubes and/or transistors. The signal is divided after the preamp and before the power amp so it requires four channels of amplification that are attached to the individual drivers. two channels for the high frequencies and two more for the low. This requires a speaker that is designed to have it's internal crossover disabled or modifying the speakers. This is bi-amping.
Another option for bi-amping is to use four amplifier channels running full range hooked to the bi-wire terminals and allowing the internal passive crossover to allow only the desired frequencies to reach the drivers.