I had an active Linn system in the past. It was good but I didn’t love it. Conceptually I like the idea.
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I have a pair of internally tri-amped Legacy Audio Aeris. There is a passive crossover between the 4 inch and 1 inch AMT tweeters. Remaining crossover function is handled by the Legacy Wavelet 2. There are multiple contouring options, and each amplifier pair (woofer l & r, mid l & r, and tweeter l & r) can have the level adjusted manually as well. In another room I have a pair of Bamberg Audio 3 TMW fully active 3 ways with mini DSP Flex unit for eq as necessary. Both systems sound very good. |
There was one active system I was very interested in, but then the designer/builder Roger Modjeski (of Music Reference of course) died, and the system with him. The system consisted of an electrostatic loudspeaker with no input transformer (all other ESL's have one), the ESL screens driver by a dedicated OTL amplifier. Get it?; a tube amp with no output transformer, and an ESL loudspeaker with no input transformer, the tubes themselves directly driving the ESL diaphragm. I can only imagine the transparency! The panels had a 4th-order high pass filter at 100Hz, and an 8" woofer in a sealed enclosure, with a 4th-order low pass filter at 100Hz.
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@patrickdowns I have heard the Dutch and Dutch and they sound good BUT they are DSP based and if memory serves me right, they down sample everything down to 64 khz. I also didn't like the fact that they needed a connection ran between both speakers. I do really like the active ATC speakers. They don't use DSP's and sound amazing. |
@willywonka - That I don't know. One cable to connect speakers doesn't seem much of a compromise, to me. YMMV |
Atc active 50s. Paired with Supratek Cortese LCR phono preamp. Atc impedance is crucial to match with a preamp, most tube preamps aren't neutral enough or able to have low enough impedance to match Atc. And that's defeats the purpose of Atc if you can't get the impedance within the parameters. I lived with the stick tubes for some time but eventually started rolling them. After several tube rolling rabbit holes I followed a recommendation of another Supratek owner who swapped out the two 6sn7 tubes with an adapter for quads, went with NOS (1942s in my case) 7193 2C22 Ken Rads and the rest was history....glorious sound...oh and later added cold extruded pure silver XLR Interconnects hand made in Australia which took to another level. |
Personally I have not gone fully active, but I love the idea of a clean simple system... Two speakers, a streamer, a power conditioner, 4 power cords and one or two interconnects.. Back in the day I used to install a lot of Genelec speakers which are very good neutral studio monitors but not what I would look at for a active system.. I heard Heavenly Soundworks at a couple shows and they are very impressive, incredible bass and soundstage from fairly compact speakers although I think they make some bigger stuff now...
Another amazing and really cool looking powered speakers brand is J Porter Studios out of Austin, those are pretty affordable and sounded wonderful, and looked really cool
A pair of either of those with a Aurender streamer and a DAC would be amazing
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@daniel25 - Interesting that ATC lists the input impedance at > 10kOhms. That does seem relatively low. I'm used to seeing 25k or higher but hopefully it doesn't affect too many tube pres. |
@erik_squires You need at least a 10-1 ratio between the amp and preamp in normal situations but I’m unsure about active amps in speakers. I wouldn’t think it would be any different. I would think 10k Ohms wouldn’t be a problem for most preamps. My Tube preamp is 300 ohms on the output. Also, my amplifier’s balanced input is 10K Ohms and it works great. I'm very interested in Active speakers and have been eying the ATC SCM50A for a long time. |
I added a set of Bryston T-10 active this January. What makes them "active" is the BAX-1 crossover and 6 channels of amplification. To be honest my mid and high are via an ARC amp and I used Bryston 7BSST monos (700 watts) for the bass drivers- not the 1000 watt ARC amps they suggest. My experience has been delightful although I think it's more abut the line array architecture of the speaker and the sophisticated crossover than the "active" idea. To me an active speaker should have the amp inside of it- like my subwoofer does. I replaced my Model T speakers with these and I'm satisfied with my purchase. I don't want to use all the well-worn Audiophile superlatives to describe what I hear, but I have been pleased- smilingly each time I play them. I will say this: I also have a set of Maggie 3.7x for softer classical music that I use in another room. The Brystons slam like a thunder clap when you crank them- which the Maggies can't do. Bottom line: The Model T-10 is a lot better. Is it $24,000 worth of speaker? Yes- under protest. I think all modern high-end gear is overpriced by 30%. I'd be giddy happy if they were 18K. |
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@willywonka - I am familiar with the rule of thumb. I just don’t know how many preamps have an output impedance higher than 1k Ohm. And it is actually just a rule of thumb. |