Passive vs Active Monitors and monitor amps

[alexc]

I like a combo  of active  *and* passive 

A modest active sub  is hard to beat  ..

plus  some  passive  hifi speakers paired up with interesting amps,  for me.

I do like using external crossovers to do basic equalizing  too.

...

What I'd really like is a good listening room  and some modern ears  .. sigh.

 

[ruffrecords]

What I'd really like is a good listening room  and some modern ears  .. sigh.

Abbey Road studio 2 and Giles Martin's ears would do for me.

Cheers

Ian

 

[scott2000]

https://ia331414.us.archive.org/2/items/High-fidelityTechniques/Langham1950High-fidelityTechniques_text.pdf



I thought this had some interesting thoughts in general...... Came across it in this thread

https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=40371.0

 

[Tubetec]

Ive done a set of fostex pm03's and a converted Kef 102ab with a subwoofer panel for bass, I run a 35 w pc Canford audio amp for the mids ,-12db at 50 hz, and 2 x 1.5w El84 based amp on tweeters . The I split the x overs into hi and low pass and pulled some of the ultra lows .sub 200hz by making the coupling cap to the tweeter amp small . Of course this system doesnt go loud and at a certain point the tube tweeter amps gracefully distort .  at normal domestic  listening levels it all works very nicely indeed . I'm in the middle of constructing the same type set up  ,passive and active combination as before but this time Im throwing some 2-3 kg of copper in the crossovers all air cored , and massive cable , if heat is the enemy of passive crossover maybe all the copper will act like a large  heat sink and wick away heat when its produced in the voice coils, caps and inductors . The benefits of dsp cant be argued against especially in big multiway pa systems ,

I just want a simple all analog system, I can afford to take the time to tune the crossovers in conjunction with REW and appart from the active crossing over of the lows its just poweramp caps and coils , no switchmodes , no class d, no op amps ,and a tiny component count.  I dont listen loud anymore so its really all about the first few watts  ,I'll try avoiding any kind of speaker protection apart from relays to control turn on transients which are already built into the Hafler XL-600 , and just allow the poweramps massive reserves to cope with the odd transient or opperator induced thumps/noises that happen from time to time.

The benefits of dsp cant be argued against especially in big multiway pa systems ,I have my current active monitors 20 years at this stage  and I'm not prepared to spend my money on any of the modern offerings with , dsp and class d under the hood .Neumann KH120ag is astonishingly good but I couldnt splash that kind of cash .

 

[Kingston]

.Neumann KH120ag is astonishingly good.

Their 3-way bigger brothers are even better, cross-over and speaker match perfection.

 

[fazer]

Haven’t heard the Neumann 300s (k&h). But would love a pair of the 3 ways to listen to.  Still have 1031s and they work for me once I get the bass right.  Would love to live in a bass accurate room for a change.

 

[sodderboy]

This topic is deeper than  CJ’s hole.  You have to train and trust what you hear to begin any depth exploration . I say that as a designer/builder.  Anyone who listens and reacts for their craft has to study, build and know absolutely what their sound is.  Once I scratch into that I can  I look at studios like commercial/residential kitchens because they are equivalent.
This exchange is the same as discussing the best panko to use in a recipe.  Hey wait! panko is best in shallow vs deep oil. . . It is SO PERSONAL.  All the kitchens(rooms) are different, all the ingredients (farms, equipments) are different, all of the pallets(ears, physiognomy, education, musical/anything else education(target audience) .  ,WE ARE SO UNIQUE, Analag you are unique! 
Yuletides! 
Mike

 

[alexc]

Like - whats panko ?

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Some guitarists do not play a Fender or Gibson, some people live on Mars, some people are vegans; it does not make them any better or wiser.
Individuality is not a guarantee of relevance.
Anyone has the right to live as they want. That does not entitle them to proselytism.

 

[alexc]

Like - whats panko ?

I found some 'panko'  diy guitar kits ..  on eby.   

 

[Gold]

I use ATC SCM100’s. I bought them used about eight years ago. I believe they are from the late 1990’s. I have no plans to change them.  I have always thought ATC just sounded right to me. I don’t take much pleasure in tweaking out a playback system. High quality powered monitors are a plus for me.

One  started sounding bad this past year. It sounded like a bad electrolytic capacitors. I opened it up and luckily it looked like the only aluminum electrolytics were the big power amp reservoir caps, the filter caps on the PSU and input capacitors. I replaced the input caps and checked for ripple on the rails. The PSU seemed fine. I don’t know how to check the big filter caps without removing them so I hoped for the best.

I was not the first person to open up the amp pack. Whoever was there before me stripped a bunch of screws that held the amp pack in place and sandwiched to the heat sink that mounts on the outside of the cabinet. Luckily I was able to get the stripped screws out without incident. I had replacement screws in stock so replaced those and applied new heat transfer paste between the amp pack and heat sink. I should probably do the other speaker but I haven’t had the chance.

 

[alexc]

@ tubetec  ..  wow man - that's some interesting audio system work ...

I'm still going through it,  but I'd sure like to hear your system with some great music.

 

[andre tchmil]

Their 3-way bigger brothers are even better, cross-over and speaker match perfection.

the 120' s are indeed good. I nearly had all desktop monitors over the 30+ years except for the ATC's and PMC's.
OR it could be that I'm more experienced now
No seriously these mini's sound damn good at low levels

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I'm annoyed at this type of post: "Nothing beats my Lamborghini", which prompts answers like "I couldn't live without my Aston-Martin DB10" or "Shelby 500 rules".
Nothing good comes out of it.
What's more, the OP did not even bother to follow. The answers probably were not worthy of his attention.
I know it's the Brewery, but our group is worth more than that.

 

[efinque]

I remember seeing a video from a mastering room (wonder they let the cameraman in) where they had a huge, server-rack size amp rig driving what looked like a pair of home theater speakers.

 

[andre tchmil]

I'm annoyed at this type of post: "Nothing beats my Lamborghini", which prompts answers like "I couldn't live without my Aston-Martin DB10" or "Shelby 500 rules".
Nothing good comes out of it.
What's more, the OP did not even bother to follow. The answers probably were not worthy of his attention.
I know it's the Brewery, but our group is worth more than that.

I'm rereading the first post.
I don't see your point, sorry.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I'm annoyed at this type of post: "Nothing beats my Lamborghini", which prompts answers like "I couldn't live without my Aston-Martin DB10" or "Shelby 500 rules".
Nothing good comes out of it.
What's more, the OP did not even bother to follow. The answers probably were not worthy of his attention.
I know it's the Brewery, but our group is worth more than that.

Kick back, relax, and shoot the breeze~ Warning: bar-stool preachers inside...

Hey kids get off my yard...  ;D

JR

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I'm rereading the first post.
I don't see your point, sorry.

Imagine someone writes: I can only play a Les Paul through a Marshall Plexi with GE 6550's. No explanation why, no substantiation. Who is interested in that?

 

[Gold]

Imagine someone writes: I can only play a Les Paul through a Marshall Plexi with GE 6550's. No explanation why, no substantiation. Who is interested in that?

What kind of Les Paul ? 8)

 

[Cody Dowling]

Nice coincidence this thread.

I saw those Adam Audio monitors (T7V or T5V, both 2-way active), entry level but lots of bang for buck according to the reviews (...)

"All the connections are on a steel rear panel, behind which is a Class‑D power
pack delivering 20 Watts for the tweeter and 50 Watts for the woofer, crossed over
at 2.6kHz. This is all handled by a Texas Instruments TAS5754M combined amp and DSP chip."

Interesting... back in the day Philips had the 'one-chip TV', now there's the 'one-chip active monitor'... and why not.

I figure they use the 2 power sections of that TAS5754M in BTL for bass, so need another driver for the 20W treble section though.

I know it's a bit late, but the TAS5754/6M works with something called "HybridFlows" (essentially a DSP program that was created by TI and then the customer sets up for their application). There is a hybridflow specifically made for this application, so it's likely they used that. The device is fundamentally a multi-chip module that contains the PCM5142 and the TAS3118 device. Both are pretty good devices in their own right, and the little DSP inside, although a bit diminutive, is pretty capable. The HybridFlows enable non-DSP powerhouse customers to get the benefits of digital signal processing without having to develop from the ground up.

With half the device on the tweeter and the other on the midrange, you can get quite a bit of power for the sub, since the tweeter doesn't use a lot of power, getting 50W is fairly easy. The TPA3118 had 24V rail capability along with 7A of peak current.

Kind regards.