passive vs. electronic passover

The modified Behringer Ultra curve, that was available on Agon might be interesting.

"Read an interesting article on Bi Amping. It was stating that you should disconnect your passive crossovers to properly Bi-Amp, so you would need to hook up electronic crossovers! sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm#common-question
Any comments?

Hook up is easy. What you need to do is design and build a custom crossover since off-the-shelf crossovers are generally insufficient. Something like a DEQX might work with some effort.

Don't active crossovers screw up the time and phase alignment of the drivers? I'm not experienced in this area, but there seems to be a cadre of time-coherent devotees that warn of anything but a "slow" crossover. With minimal listening I do see some benefit to what they're saying (e.g., with Vandersteen's and the like), but have not listened to any "active" speakers. Anyone here care to comment or educate, especially someone familiar with both approaches?

I agree with Bob Reynolds.When adding a subwoofer system,it is easy enough to position the them for phasing.Removing passives in an already full-range speaker system is another thing all together.The problem being that a passive crossover can adjust for timimg/phase.Taking these out and using an out-board unit usually won't compensate for the phasing.In order to get active units with a delay function can be an expensive proposition.
The best crossovers I have used were passive/capacitor based on top and active in the bass,similar to the Dahlquist and ARC units.JMHO.

I am currently trying out biamping my Magnepan 20R's using a Bryston 10B "Standard" (not the "sub" model- although I can get a L+R combined sub out from this unit) active crossover using crossover frequency points and db slope recommendations recommended by Magenpan, with good results. Much improved dynamics in particular.

There is no doubt that removing the passive crossover will improve control over your woofers. Nobody argues against this. It is theoretically better. It is measurably better. And it is certainly audibly better.

In my own car audio setup, converting to an active crossover noticably improved the midbass and bass, but the tradeoff was a harsher midrange and top end.

I think that semi-active is the answer. In my experience, the low frequencies benefit most from going active. The midrange and top end, less so.

Do the guys who bi-amp do this? I will be bi amping my rig! Just want to get the most out of everything! I am getting a pair of Tyler Acoustic PD80 and he is going to rig it active and passive.
Thanks fo the info!!!

LOL...ski6132

The biggest benefits of bi-amping will indeed come if you remove the passive crossover. The article neglects to mention that an active crossover can also be designed to match the drivers so that phase linearity is maintained across the crossover for the sound from the drivers. (This is not the same as a phase coherent active crossover - it means fine tuning the active crossover precisely to each driver)

The article also does not mention the advantage of a steep active crossover....you can rapidly reduce out of band unwanted driver behavior (such as beaming or breakup) to extremely low inaudible levels whilst still getting the most out of each drivers linear operating range.

A digital processor may one day allow voice coil temperature and/or driver output to be monitored so that it can be controlled to precisely match the input (making the driver sonic signal match the input drive signal and even further reducing distortion). Meyer seems to be working on this but it is not easy because drivers (unlike electrical circuits) have inertia and take time to respond to feedback. Nevertheless, in future some form of correction may be expected to improve accuracy.

It is a no brainer really (from a technical performance perspective)...

So, is this a new type of Audiophile related Jewish holiday?

Yeah, I am not sure why one would bi-amp without crossovers proximal to the amps. Active crossovers are commonly used in car audio, and why they are not used much in home audio is something I do not understand. Most notably, Linn owners in general seem to be sold on the benefits.