Acitve DIY Speakers (1 Viewer)

Why arent there any active speaker kits? I keep on hearing all the advantages of active crossovers, and i just wondered why noone is selling any active kits because i would be really interested in purchasing one.

thanks
Alex

There are... Linkwitz Lab Orions are fully Active but they
are anything but cheap

Price. Active setups require a lot more channels of amplifcation

By "active", I assume you're referring to speakers with built-in amplifiers. Lack of high-quality amps designed to be built into speaker cabinets is the reason. You wouldn't want a subwoofer plate amp to drive your bass, mid and tweeter drivers
If I've misunderstood your question, I'm sorry.

Adire sells amps with active crossovers for just this purpose. I've never used one or heard from someone who had, but I'm sure Dan Wiggens can answer your questions.


Adire Active Home

The Adire amps are fine if one needs 24dB L/R XO's that lack baffle step compensation.

Custom speaker designers frequently use a mix of crossover slopes and circuit designs that are taylored for the specific performance characteristics of the drivers being used. And with the exception of planars everyone I know uses baffle step compensation.

The only device I'm aware of that would provide all the necessary design elements in one device (excluding power amps) is the Marchand XM44. And it's not exactly cheap when configured with all the options used in most good speaker designs.

Some digital devices like the DriveRacks also have lots of options.

Another issue with 'active' speakers is the basic lack of upgradability. Also the fact that if you lose any one of the built-in amps or crossovers you loose the entire speaker that concept isn't very inviting...

Those Adire amps are still "plate" amps at heart - not high quality amps that you would want driving really good main speakers. From the "Adire Active" site:

As Thomas pointed out, those amps just don't have the circuitry for tailoring to specific drivers like is really needed for good main LR speakers.

Marchand is the way to go for Active Analog

For Active Digital you have DBX with the DriveRack and now
Behringer has some Digital Crossovers that look very
interesting also.

That's why I am building my passive XO networks for the
Line Array's external because I can unplug them and stick
the Behringer or DBX between them when I am ready to go
active.. Lots of flexability!