Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

The new digital amp boards from Elegant Audio Solutions (like the old TACT and Lyngdorf but more modern and using GaNs on the output).....allow inexpensive active multiamping using an external digital xover such as the inexpensive Minidsp units. For an OEM the boards also have DSP functions built in.....but even the board with just digital inputs can be used with amazing results. Peachtree has the GaN 1 amp now and there will be soon an amp with 400 watts a channel. You could use two of these $1500 digital amps (one per channel) and the $600 Minidsp Flex digital and you can biamp any drivers......full eq. room correction, time alignment (delay), whatever......Of course, you can use more amps and tri and quad amp. I am sure there will be 8 channel amps out within a year or so.....integrated amps as well. A digital amp allows you to use NO DACs, NO ADCs.....no preamps.....and no normal amps, no analog cables......and of course, no distorting passive xover parts. This is a revolution. Why buy speakers when you can make your own open baffle speakers in one weekend that will sound better than anything you have ever heard.

http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/The_Audio_Revolution_has_begun.html

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Actually speaker design is simple.....there are not that many factors and you can learn them all in a few hours and apply them with a digital xover and digital amps. There are tons of speakers that cross over a tweeter below 1K......yes, indeed. However, the problem is usually power handling.....and with steeper 48db per octave xover slopes it is no longer a problem. Anyone can buy a calibrated mircrophone and measure their speaker in room...including off axis response. A 10 year old with average IQ can take some great drivers and put them on an open baffle and with a good digital xover and digital amps will create a speaker that blows your frickin mind......and I am talking "all done in one day!!!!!!" It is really that simple. The xover in the Mofi speaker is not complex......Andrew probably spent a couple of hours designing it and tweaking it. Of course, he got in different proto versions of the driver and spent time with each one....but the xover design is simple and normal.....He can probably do the calculations for the parts in his head....he has done it so long. He spent no time listening to those xover parts versus more expensive more transparent one.. Of course there are polar patterns but it is easy to undertand and you can measure it very fast. Polar response matching is usually bad when you try to run a woofer too high so it does not have dispersion that matches the tweeter.

Simply hooking up a digital xover to digital amps and then to drivers not only provides ALL the benefits of normal active speakers but it gets rid of the distorting DACS, one dollar op amps on the output of the DACS and normal class D or A/B amps with all their parts and circuitry and feedback. A digital amp has NO....I repeat NO ordinary amplification stages, DACs or feedback......Usually, the shorter the signal path the more pure the result. There will be better implementations of digital amplidication down the road....as EVERYTHING changes the sound. The software that changes PCM to PWM is crucial to the sound. The switching frequency, the passive parts on the output, the noise and quality of the power supplies, the jitter on the clock that runs the processor.....etc. into infinity. So, we are not done....nor will we ever be.....that what makes this game fun.

BUT......this is the first time in the history of humanity.....he he...that a digital amp board is being made and can be purchased by any OEM and one can make amps, integrated amps and powered speakers with this technology that gets rid of so many components. So, will a $1500 digital amp beat a $125K MSB Select DAC, with the $145K Boulder preamp and the $250K boulder Mono blocks with $10K worth of analog cables in between?......probably not. But what will it beat? Most audiophiles have maybe 20K in their system.....I bet this 1.5K thing will compete with that......and then if you used multiple amps and a digital xover....and wired directly to speaker voice coil wires.....well, I think it would compete with 100K systems and you can put it all together yourself quickly and cheaply and have a ball tuning it and trying different drivers.......this is indeed a revolution.....like it or not.

So, what benefits do normal active speakers give that using digital amps and digital xovers not do? Remember, you can make a box speaker using this too. Stick a 10 inch driver in a box and put a tweeter above it......have the digital amp directly behind the speaker and hardwired to the drivers........The only advantage I see of powered speakers is that they are completely all in one. So you can put them in different places and move them around easier......for monitoring at location, etc. BUT, these digital amp modules can be put directly inside a speaker to make the same exact thing....but with no DACs, one dollar op amps, feedack and normal feedack amps inside, they will sound even better than the current powered speakers.......so all the companies making powered speakers now using digital xovers with DACs and op amps and normal class D amps can be upgraded SONICALLY by using these inexpensive digital amp boards.....you will see this happening......sooner than you think.

Besides being purer sounding than a normal active system.....digital amplification allows you to tune the speaker any way you like, including get rid of bass nodes and extend the bass.  You are stuck with the drivers, box design and amplifiers and xovers in a normal active speaker.  You want to try a different type of tweeter?.....well, you then have to buy a new set of monitors with that tweeter inside....and, of course, it will still have all the limitations of box design, etc.  You can swap out drivers in minutes and play like never before when making your own speaker.  How many active speakers are dipole?  Dipole speakers give a bigger more open sound.  Regular active speakers and monitors are so yesterday.

The only advantage of a regular electronic xover is you get to play with tube amps and tube preamps and tube DACs.  Some will never like the ultra pure low distortion of a digital amp......they want the extra liguidity and beauty that only tubes do.  So, this is not for everyone.  As in all things.

Now, I understand.....thespeakerdude is an objectivist......he believes in measurements only......that is why he thinkis that DACs and op amps and normal amps are transparent.......sorry. even one resistor is not transparent......we live in different worlds.  I listen to "everything" I do......What do you listen to?  measurements?  I give minimal response to objectivists (won't respond again to thespeakerdude on this thread) because they have no real knowledge (ie....real knowledge in audio is from listening tests) and it is just a waste of time.....it just goes on and on and they have to have the last word.  He probably thinks all passive components have no sound.....ie: he is against any form of tweaking.  You see.....as soon as you "define" something you have to then "defend" it.  This is what the ego does.  All religions have LOVE as their essence.......but when you get to the formal stuff....well, then it gets pretty rigid and judgemental (not loving or inclusive).  When you get that everything makes a difference sonically......then you are more open to possiblilities....and the possibilities are infinite.  This is the joy of audio.....that you can keep playing and learning and growing.  This is what the human soul has come here to do......to learn how to be more open, inclusive and loving.  Putting things in a box.....is well....so yesterday.  We are one....we are love and we are eternal infinte joy.