   
About Active Speakers
Common FAQs: What is the difference between studio monitors and hi-fi domestic loudspeakers? Studio monitor loudspeakers differ from hi-fi domestic loudspeakers in that: 1. They make use of more advanced and sophisticated drive units. 2. Higher-quality cabinet materials and constructional techniques. 3. A rather more sophisticated crossover, which usually incorporates both inductors and capacitors in the treble and bass sections as well as resistors, which together give much steeper filter slopes than our 6dB/octave. Also, the overall frequency response is adjusted by the crossover to give a flatter and better-balanced frequency response.
Why active speakers? There are various reasons why active speakers are preferable to passive alternatives, the most dominant being the integrated construction allowing better optimisation of the system performance. The loudspeakers are always delivered as a complete factory calibrated system, consisting of all amplifiers, crossover electronics and speaker cabinets. 1. The active electronic crossover unit operates at low signal levels (nominally at 1 volt). Hence the low level active crossovers give stable performance even in high power applications. 2. In an active loudspeaker system the amplifiers are connected directly to the drive units. Distortion anomalies and losses caused by passive crossovers are completely avoided resulting in better sounding quality and maximum acoustic efficiency. 3. For every model of loudspeakers the associated amplifiers have a unique design including driver overload protection. The overload protection detects signals that are above the driver's safe limit preventing damage. This makes the system immune to overloads and spurious signals which digital sources occasionally produce. 4. The crossover and phase responses are optimised for each particular model to achieve highly accurate system performance. Consequently, every model has the same neutral sound. 5. The active loudspeaker systems are equipped with versatile room response adjustments. (Note: In passive loudspeaker systems, the designer has little or no control over which type of loudspeaker is connected to which type of amplifier, and thus the design of each is usually a compromise between adaptability and performance.)
Why 'all digital'? The advantage of signal digital domain is 1. It is inherently more robust than its analogue counterpart. 2. It is virtually immune to crosstalk. 3. It is unaffected by lead capacitance, electromagnetic fields from mains wiring, additional circuit distortion and noise and ether-borne interference. 4. All signal processing can be carried out in the digital domain precisely and repeatedly.
What is a Digital Interface? The digital audio interface consists of a digital audio receiver and a digital-to-analogue converter (D/A converter). The digital input accepts an AES/EBU or SP-DIF digital audio signal, having word length up to 24 bits. Digital thru allows the digital audio signal to be re-transmitted to other digital audio equipment. Converting the digital presentation to an analogue involves potential sources of error. The digital-to-analogue converter may have inferior performance. It may be misaligned with the amplifiers. The interface between the converter and the amplifier may distort the signal or it may change the frequency balance. The alignment of the system is to be carefully balanced to ensure precise reproduction of the digital signal.
What are DSP loudspeakers? The DSP loudspeakers include a built-in digital audio interface consisting of a digital audio receiver and a D/A converter along with associated electronics. This integrated construction allows convenience of use, where the only connections required are the mains supply and the digital (or analogue) input signal, making all DSP loudspeakers very easy to set up and use due to the exact alignment system from the D/A converter to power amplifier output. FUll implementation of digital equalisation is useful for correcting problems in room acoustics. In the final loudspeaker room interaction, all DSP loudspeakers provide unparalled sonic precision. - Sanket Jadhav, AV Max, March 2006 -->
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