Who actually uses digital speakers?

Don’t forget that all active systems that use DSP are not the same or equal. Our Apollo system can be configured several way and the owner can use any amps or front end they want. Our customers use low power SET amps to mid power SS and  anything in between. Some use digital front ends and others analog front ends. Tube preamp or SS preamp or no preamp, it’s your choice. 

Many people tell me that they are happy we are developing systems like ours and that this IS the future.

Mike

I respectfully and strongly disagree with the broad statement that DSP applied makes music sound like crap. Broad and adamant statements are a disservice to the audio community. DSP is applied everywhere there is digital, from recording to mastering to playback. Unless you listen to analog masters through an all analog system DSP has been applied. An all analog audio chain has analog manipulation and an audio chain that has digital has DSP. Analog signal processing is not without sin either especially if over used.

Eric,

Active speaker systems with all discreet components certainly add a layer of complexity but also have tons of flexibility. We actually use different crossover points to dial in a system along with more conventional amplitude adjustments and time domain adjustments. These types of adjustments were impractical to do with passive and fixed systems.

Mike

Hi Erik, Sorry for misspelling your name, my bad.

 I try not to talk about my products specifically but use them as an example of what is possible. I think many people here are not always clear on the terminology related to DSP, ASP, active systems and room correction. It’s not our technology but it’s how we use it.

Baffle design is an interesting topic. As I’m sure you know the baffle design affects many things. Specifically to our dipole Apollo speakers we are mostly concerned with baffle width, baffle step and diffraction. The ideal width for our 120Hz line array is about 39”. In theory a flat 39” baffle will support our line array down to about 120Hz without baffle step or cancellation. That creates other problems along with being too wide for most home system. So we folded the baffle into an asymmetrical “U” shape. The inside of the back side is shaped to minimize cavity resonances. There a bit more to it but that’s the basics.

Mike

Hi Erik,

Our baffle design accomplishes what we want and with DSP/Room correction wider  isn’t worth the extra floor space. A line array without DSP/Room correction, like the Infinity, is designed differently than our Apollos and can benefit from a wide baffle. There are pros and cons. Once again, the room becomes part of the equation.

Hi Erik,

Just to be clear "wider isn’t worth the extra floor space" in my context is "with (our Apollos and) DSP/Room correction wider isn’t worth the extra floor space".

If you are building a line array without digital room correction (or passive) and have a decent size room I would encourage you to try a wide baffle. Flat baffles are by far the easiest to build.

To the OP: Like the all-inclusive active systems, our system has digital inputs as well. We sometimes use our transport or server directly in. Not having a DAC and preamp between the digital source and processor sounds a little different, both good just different. In our system the quality of the digital source becomes more apparent when connected directly. My preamp is tube based, BTW. My experience is that the quality of the components and a correct interface make a much bigger difference and is more important than worrying about another conversion.

wolf_garcia I appreciate your sentiment. I hear that concern from time to time from people interested in our speakers. I agree with the concern. Fixed systems, whether digital active or passive are tonally "tuned" by the speaker designer. The better automatic DSP/Room correction systems deal mostly with addressing room issues. They don't alter tonality unless manual adjustments are done. It is easy to negatively affect the SQ with excessive manual adjustments. I encourage people to try different settings so they learn. It's easy to go back to the default so no harm done.

Mike