2-way active x-over suggestions

[jjcarr]

I'm thinking about going active. If I want a "starter" quality x-over, something that will improve the sound over a bi-amped passive system, how nice of a crossover do I need to get? Can I get by with a low-end Behringer or dbx, or would it muddy up my sound?

 

[JonFo]

If you just want to experiment and learn, then an Ashly, Behringer or DBX will do.

the DBX and Ashly's are much better quality than the B* stuff.

I have an Ashly XR-1001 if you are interested. I had used it on the Monoliths before I got the DBX Driverack.

After a while with the 'regular' active x-over, you will be ready to graduate to the speaker processors. It takes some practice setting up the simpler systems before you really get what the speaker processor can do, and how to make it do it.

 

[jjcarr]

How does the sound of a cheap active bi-amp vs a good passive sound? Assuming the same amp of course. I'm wondering if upgrading the internal caps would end up sounding better than a starter active setup. I'm wondering if it's worth fussing with.

 

[JonFo]

Well, if you consider the huge external Monolith passive X-overs 'good' (and they had premium parts in them), then my confident answer is that even that Ashly blew away the passive.

Now, I still maintain that to get it ultimately 'right' you still need a speaker processor like the DriveRack to tune time alignments and phase.
And a touch of EQ here and there is good in moderation.

Much easier to mess with actives than passives, at least you won't burn yourself with the soldering iron

 

[jjcarr]

Thanks for the info. I was looking at getting a pair of Monolith I's, but they were sold before I got there. So, now I'll probably start looking for a pair of ReQuests, or hold out for another set of Monolith's.

 

[Tj Bassi]

I own reQuests (two pair, one up front and same for the rears) and tried various bi-amp configurations, once running tubes on the panels and SS Krells on the woofers, as well as SS on both. Did not seem to be worth the effort and I came to the conclusion that the best benefit came from the addition of an outboard subwoofer. This was all done with the standard reQuest's internal crossover so I dont know if an active unit would have improved our results.

Tj