Pure Audio Project open baffle speakers

douglas
I considered the C1. I do believe that is the one designed by Nelson Pass for PAP. That gets a lot closer to what I want, and does roll off the drivers properly as opposed to the Leonides passive XO. The C1 and the Leonides are night and day different in how they XO the drivers.

Only issue I have with the C1 is it is not quite flexible enough for me, in that is a single ended design and I used balanced connections and would require buying two C1s. Pass also used 2nd order Linkwitz Riley slopes, which create 180 degree phase shift at the XO point, requiring one of the drivers to be wired out of phase with the other. I would prefer 4rth order LR slopes instead. That said, the C1 is definitely a step in the right direction.

PAP also has a passive 2nd order XO that was used prior to the Leonides version (I think). Have not used that XO, as I was convinced to order the Leonides instead.

 

dhl93449, you know precisely what you are after. You are right about this, "The C1 and the Leonides are night and day different in how they XO the drivers," as I have heard the difference and it is significant. 

Maybe discuss with Pass Labs whether an XLR version of the PAP C1 could be made for you. The other possibility is to get a digital x-over and do your own slopes. One industry member who does similar with his speakers is Chris VenHaus of VH Audio. He would be able to tell you what software he uses to build filters.   

Anyway, if you contact Chris, please respect his time, as he is quite busy with VH Audio. But, I'm sure he would be able to point you in a direction in terms of establishing a digital X-over.  

douglas:

Well I decided to build my own active XO, based on a class A discrete op amp design (a modified Spectral design using a Pass Labs type JFet output stage). Took quite a while to build and test due to the number of amps involved. Also had to procure two more JC-1s. I substituted the Voxative midrange driver for the Horn, and cross the bass drivers over at 400 Hz with 4rth order Linkwitz Riley slopes.

Resulting sound is amazing. Best my system has ever sounded. Considerably better than the Horn 1 with the passive Leonides XO. I have yet to try the horn with the electronic XO (400 Hz is probably a bit too low and would have to alter my XO point to 800 Hz), but the Voxative sounds so good I may not bother with the horn. Gone is all the stridency in the vocals and the symbols and bells are wonderful. 

douglas:

As an addendum, since you mentioned VH Audio. I am using their teflon caps in the critical low pass and high pass filters.

dhl93449, congratulations on advancing your system! It's obvious you had a goal and know how to achieve it. This supports once again the conclusion that an active x-over holds the potential to outperform a passive. The addition of two more amps completely changes the game with any speaker; properly, you have done upgrade to speaker and to amplification. The power delivery and crossovers have changed, and that is a radical upgrade to a system - as is evidenced by your obvious pleasure with the result.  

Just because the results are fantastic doesn't mean it can't get better. Why not try the horn to get it to the same, and perhaps higher level of sound quality? If you have the driver available, I strongly suggest you do. Try all permutations. If it were me, I would work to achieve the absolute best with both, then have the option of swapping them out for variety. Especially since you have put in a fair bit more money in buying two additional JC1's, I would want as much result/performance as possible.