What is the most overlooked consideration?
What is the most overlooked consideration when buying a piece of audio gear? We all buy gear and we all have to make choices as to what component to get, what brand, etc. What is at the top of your criteria for choosing a piece and why? Synergy? reputation of brand ?hype your heard? it’s the best compliment to my system? warranty and service? I just wanted to try a cable? I only buy brands from the UK? Etc
So you can tell what’s at the top of your list but mostly I want you to share what you think is a much overlooked consideration and why?
For myself I often think customer service gets overlooked as being very important.
One of the most overlooked considerations, from my chair, is the amp to driver interfacing, starting with getting rid of the passive crossover between the amp and speaker/its drivers. That naturally necessitates doing the crossover duties prior to amplification on signal level (i.e.: active configuration) and having a dedicated amp channel for each driver section, which in turn means amp load independency between each of these sections. This way (i.e.: both getting rid of the passive crossover on the output side of the amp and having each amp channel drive a limited frequency span) the individual amp channels will see a significantly easier load presented to them, thereby making more effective use of their power envelope and quality potential; finally control the drivers better with direct driver connection and harnessing more of their potential as well. Next is higher speaker efficiency, or ideally no less than ~95dB sensitivity across the board to lessen thermally induced compression issues (not least as a dynamic phenomena with dulled transient response), and to aid overall ease and fluidity of reproduction. (Then there's the importance of matching directivity patterns, especially at crossovers between different driver sections for good, smooth power response). When combining above two (or three) aspects in speaker design, a significant bottleneck in audio reproduction has been addressed. Active configuration isn't just about removing the passive crossover as the perhaps most "visible" measure, but as well - by the same token - to make way for amp load independency in each of their sections, which in turn affects driver performance and accuracy. |
I do agree with this approach. In addition to the benefits you cited, you can match amplification with frequency range; for instance, those old Bryston monoblocks you have laying around will do great on bass duty, leaving you free to spec SS Class A amps on mids, etc. or as your heart desires. Active crossover implementation is far from trivial, though, especially if you wish to avoid the AD - DA conversions a digital crossover entails. You could put together relatively inexpensively active speakers with onboard modular amplification and a USB-programmable DSP module or even a SBC running Linux. Thermal management is going to be tricky if electronics are integrated onboard the speakers. I've been kind of mulling over something like that. |
@arafiq well put |
