Why aren't component active XOs more popular?

Serus: As mentioned, my Brother went from using a 6 dB per octave passive crossover using very high grade parts in a passively crossed multi-amped system to an "antique" active crossover that was used professionally and beaten to death. After hearing the difference for himself, he pulled all of the passive parts and bought an active crossover. Bare in mind that his initial testing was done just listening to a tweeter with a cap in series vs the tweeter actively crossed at 6 dB's. Not only were the differences HIGHLY audible using even a "low grade" active crossover, there are measurable differences in amplifier performance and efficiency involved in such a situation too.

Factor in that most dynamic tweeters are far less demanding of a load on an amp as compared to a large dynamic woofer and the benefits would have been even more apparent at low frequencies.

You have to remember that the passive crossover is dealing a high level signal from the amp and the reflected EMF of the drivers simultaneously. When you use an active crossover, the efficiency of the amplifier is markedly increased due to the reduction in bandwidth. That is, the amp is no longer trying to reproduce power that ends up getting "wasted" in a passive multi-amp system. The end result is that transient response is improved, distortion is lowered, thermal stress is reduced, etc... Speed and clarity is improved in every respect. The fact that the active crossover is dealing with miniscule amounts of line level voltage whereas the passive crossover circuitry is dealing with both much higher levels of voltage and current should explain why the whole system sounds "more stressed" once those parts are introduced into the equation.

On top of that, the amp doesn't see the added reactance and phase shifts of the passive circuitry as part of the load as the amp is now in "direct drive" mode. That is, the amp sees the nominal impedance of the speaker cable and the electrical characteristics of the driver itself. As such, it is a "purer" load for the amp on top of the added benefits of active bandwidth limiting mentioned above.

Granted, some specific amp / speaker combos may sound better with a passive crossover, but that is typically because the amp itself isn't up to the job at hand. Then again, getting rid of all of the other "garbage" between the amp and the drivers themselves can also be the difference between an "inadequate" amplifier and a "good" amplifier in such a system for the aforementioned reasons. It can be a tough situation, but as mentioned elsewhere, if the drivers are good units and well-matched to begin with, anything other than an active system will degrade the sonic potential of an otherwise excellent set of speakers. Don't believe me? Try inserting a cap in series with your tweeter and see for yourself. Sean
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I am using an active crossover for my InnerSound EROS MKII
speakers and I like it bunches.

Who says they aren't popular? The reason you don't see many is once you have one in your system--You are not going to give it up! Occassionaly you will see one and they sell fast. For me the greatest single improvement was going from a passive bi-amp system to an electronically XO system. There are some caveats: With 3-way electronically XO's, (ie tweeter, mid & bass), there is a much higher probability of blowing tweeters (in my 3-way system I have blown 2 sets of tweeters in the last 5 years--and both times I did something stupid); then there's the hassle of 3 amps and the clutter of that much more cables and wires. But the sound makes it worth it IMHO. Marchand has wonderful kits for electronic XO's. You do have to set levels but this also gives you the flexibility to make it sound the way YOU like it. The other beautiful thing, is it frees up your tube amp to do the things they do best and allows you to use a solid state amp to do the grunt work of bass. And one more thing: If you are building your own speakers, designing a passive cross-over is extremely difficult. You can buy software or have someone do it for you (recommended if you must go passive) but by the time you buy first rate components, you probably could have bought an electronic XO and I think the electronic XO will sound better!

Again, I remind people that a major advantage of electronic crossovers is to reduce the power amplifier power requirement, and to avoid IM distortion. Both of these advantages have become less important with the advent of solid state power amps. For those who still use tube power amps, tube crossovers are available (for example from Marchand).

With old style tube amps the improvement with an electronic crossover is dramatic. With modern solid state amps the improvement is less, being related only to avoiding the problems of the passive crossover.

Suit-me with all due respect my wording in my post good have been more clear. I have limited knowlege when it comes to X-over but I am open to learning. I realize there are some speakers that would be diffacult to go active with and could be far to much trouble in the end. But I would think that a good many it would benifit if done properly which at times can be a tiresome task but worth it. The speakers you gave examples of are fine speakers indeed but you didn't give an example of a speaker that you heard in passive and then active and that was my question. I have heard 3 in active but only 1 did i hear it in both modes and that was Magenpan MG IIIa which are very simular to mine and is the reason why I am going to active it has made a very noticeable differance in my friends system. He used to have a set of Dal. DQ 10 in active and as a 5 way speaker I would think not easy to set up as he set it up as a 4 way and sounded pretty good as I used to own a pair of stock ones. I am some what Dollar challenged because of a disability and have a fixed income. Most of my system is older used but desent gear and I am just looking to get the best out of what I have. As I have extra gear (don't we all)my only needed gear was a X-over.For now the ribbon will be kept on passive but upgraded. I will upgrsde my amps when funds allow (tube or class A ss)for the top. But back to the thread as someone else said you don't see x-overs for sale often becuase people just don't part with them. I've been looking for a while for a desent one i could afford. I found the Marchand XM 44 up here in Canada for $ 400.US. I seen your thread on AA resently about going active with a sub. Interesting read, Thanks for your thoughts. benie