Horizontal bi-amping with different amplifiers

[microstrip]

All you need to do is put a protection capacitor in series. It's a common practice in the SR field. Compression driver diaphrams are not inexpensive either. The Be's can run up to $900 a pop.

Have you ever tried biamping?? There are systems that are user configurable to go from fully Passive to Biamped. That's about the easiest way to compare the difference between passive and active.
Rob

Yes, but the capacitor will upset the partisans of the direct connection - also tweakers will immediately start experimenting with different capacitors and claiming big differences, denying its main advantage!

BTW, a passive system can be biamped - my speakers are passive and can be triamped.

 

[Keith_W]

Active speakers -- speakers with separate amps for each driver, and crossovers before amplification, built in.

Powered speakers -- passive speakers with built in amps.

Both your terms can be adequately described by saying that the speaker has an LLXO and HLXO respectively. The very term ALLXO and HLXO tells you where the amplifiers are in the chain. It doesn't matter if the amp is built into the speaker cabinet (e.g. computer speakers, Audioengine speakers, ADAM speakers, and Meridian speakers). What matters is where the crossover is.

 

[microstrip]

Not really the point remains that one can get better objective results with such modifications. Tweaks such as fuses directions, cable elevators, fuses with directionality , cryogenic treatment and the likes are where to paraphrase you expectation bias and preferences dangerously mix .. but I am sure you got my points .. And I did agree with you that such modifications require knowledge and are not plug and play ...

Yes, we agree on most points, as usual. But I could rewrite your sentence as the point remains that one can get worse objective and subjective results with such modifications and it would be equally true.

 

[microstrip]

(...)
Active Speaker - any speaker which is powered from mains. If a power cord runs to your speaker, it is active. This is irrespective of whether the speaker has a LLXO or HLXO. The tweeter on my Acapella is active. Speakers made by Adam are active. The bass section on Avantgarde Uno's and Duo's are active. The Quad ESL is active. Many people use the term "active speaker" to mean that the amplifier is connected directly to the driver (implying the presence of a LLXO), but I believe that it is more precise to simply specify the type of crossover present because that by itself implies that the amp is directly connected to the driver.

Passive Speaker - any speaker which is powered by a power amp. By far the majority have a HLXO, but some are crossoverless, e.g. so-called "full range" speakers.

Keith,

I find your definition of active "If a power cord runs to your speaker, it is active." can be confusing and even inappropriate. The mains in the Quad ESL is used mainly for polarizing purposes and is not part of the signal. IMHO, the concept of active is linked with presence of one or more audio power amplifiers in the speaker box.

 

[Keith_W]

I don't understand what is so confusing about a power cord running into a speaker?

In electrical terms, anything which is active means that it is powered. Anything which is passive means that it is powered by something else. That's all there is to it.

 

[GaryProtein]

I'll add to the confusion:

Active speakers -- speakers with separate amps for each driver, and crossovers before amplification, built in.

Powered speakers -- passive speakers with built in amps.

The distinction is not small, though audiophiles often are confused, referring to small active monitors as "computer speakers." They are forgiven their ignorance, as their ears have likely been blunted by the distortions of passive speakers.

Tim

I'll definitely go along with those descriptions.

 

[GaryProtein]

. . . . What matters is where the crossover is.

. . . which is why I liked the definitions I used earlier!

 

[GaryProtein]

. . . . BTW, a passive system can be biamped - my speakers are passive and can be triamped.

Of course they can. Was there ever any question about that?

 

[GaryProtein]

I don't understand what is so confusing about a power cord running into a speaker?

In electrical terms, anything which is active means that it is powered. Anything which is passive means that it is powered by something else. That's all there is to it.

I see what you are saying, but to call a Martin Logan electrostatic that is connected to an amplifier and you plug into the wall to energize a pair of stators "active" in the same sense as one of the new "active" Bryston speakers where the plug into the wall powers the amplifier "active" is not giving the same meaning to the term.