What are your opinions of DSP's for speakers

@phusis 

agree that DSP is more than room correction, and can be the right choice for an all digital DIY horn system, assuming you have the skills to execute it, where you have active crossovers. especially where you are using modestly priced digital sources. you have nothing to lose. you have not invested in expensive uber digital with an expensive analog output with signal path purity you are trying to protect. so your performance priority is a digital output to your crossover. it can be one path to great sound on a modest budget.

i’m no expert on the result of such an effort, so it would be unreasonable of me to question your end result. i’m sure it has some amazing attributes.

i have heard the Avant-garde Trio G3 with the I-tron current amplification and it does some amazing things. it does have an analog crossover. but the approach has much in common as far as the directness of the sound.

could i live with it every day? not sure.

Compared to what, a passive crossover? 

i have visited audio shows for 3 decades and heard many all digital active systems and none have ever really got my interest enough to leave a strong impression. but there were many winners and solid sounding set-ups. but honestly not sure i gave them the time of day as i’m a confirmed analog guy and signal path purity is first and foremost to me, and i have spent a couple decades building and tuning a room to support the analog signal path approach. 

so to be fair i don’t know what i don’t know about high level DSP efforts. maybe someday i’ll get bowled over. 

but when i look at my investment in great sources with amazing analog outputs i am skeptical DSP is ever going to do it for me.

as a side note, i have an unused Xilica crossover new in a box sitting up stairs in my barn attic i was going to use with my -3- Funk Audio 18.0 subs with my Trinnov processor for my separate Home Theater system. but turned out that my subs each had a great on board AllDSP crossover so never needed it. i do view the Trinnov as an ultimate product both for room correction and as a crossover so obviously i'm a DSP fanboy big time. horses for courses.

My Emerald Physics 2.8's were designed to be used with DSP. I think it was one of the ways in compensated for the bass loss endemic to an open baffle design. Instead of using what they provided, which was okay, I got the DSpeaker X4, a fairly sophisticated stand alone DSP unit. When i used it for bass at under 250 hertz, it really did a nice job of smoothing out the bass in my problematic room. I very much appreciated its good work. But when I allowed it to be used in the higher frequencies, I was always ill at ease. It changed something for me - but I also allow that it could simply been a bias that colored my perceptions.

Anyway, with my new speakers (I went from open baffle to horns), I do not use DSP, and sold the X4. I am happy this way. 

Keep the DSP in the bass, and I suspect you might be pleased with what it does.

Willywonka

I too am curious about DSP, tweeks, Baach filters, etc.

At Axpona I spent a lot of time in the Theoretica room, to try and understand their Baach4Mac.....and left more confused than when I went in. This will take more digging.

I also spent quite a bit of time, and did purchase a Synergistic Research PowerCell 8SX (to which they through in a lot of extras as a show special) and some pink power cables.....they were with Scott Walker. I need to spend more time here as well, but Ted Denny's demos were eye opening. That being said, the system was probably north of $300,000, but so were many others

I will not be doing this for myself, but I again heard a few "all in one" speaker set ups that were ridiculously good.....these included built in DACs, amps, streamer, DSP, speakers, etc. If I was downsizing or just starting out, I would stongly consider one of these options

The Dutch and Dutch 8C was very impressive, as it has been every time I've ever heard them. I think a pair of 8Cs (NOT THE MONITORS), runs about $15,000

The Grimm Audio LS1C all in one were brilliant (once I got them to mix up the music), it had the matching subwoofer as well. They were being driven with only a Grimm MU1......and I thought were great. A pair were around $24,000, unless you went with the top of the heap bE version......but the demo system was the standard system

Have yet to hear DSP work well for 2ch. It usually make the soundstage smaller, and makes everything sound compressed. I'm sure it's smoother, cleaner, optimized, but it takes all the emotion out of it, feeling sterile. 

Yes, DSP for my 9.4.2, (13 speakers @ 150wpc) absolutely! It's almost impossible to time align all them speakers to a listening spot. Soundstage isn't affected with 4 speakers providing it. But music (unless encoded for atmos) sounds lifeless, and dull, but movies are incredible. 

@vthokie83 There were many more rooms this year with Active/DSP based systems at AXPONA. A popular YouTube reviewer also noticed this. It seems this is going to be the future for many companies. I heard the Dutch and Dutch 8C's at AXPONA a couple years ago and was very impressed with the bass they put out. After doing some research though they down sampled everything coming in to them. I didn't really like that. They also require a physical connection between both speakers. I guess there are compromises with any speaker brand. Thanks for your comments.