Do you guys think part of that sense of efficient and dynamic presentation is owing to the deletion of the passive crossovers?
Wondering as I ponder an evolution of my passive towers....
Trevor ... part of the issue is the elimination of the passive crossovers, yes. A passive crossover can only attenuate the signal in order to achieve a relatively flat response curve (think family of curves - I urge you to look at the curves for the passive front firing speakers, then the passive LFR series, then the active LFR-1100 - you will see a lot of improvement with each evolution of speaker). The passive crossover - from ANY speaker - will "bleed off" power while performing its function.
The LFR-1100 active has these benefits:
1. The DSP handles all crossover duties - no bleed off in terms of power. The following statement is an "educated guess" on my part - but I am fairly certain a pair of Active LFR-1100's with dual ADA-1000-5 amps will outperform a pair of passive LFR-1100's with an ADA-1500-2 for each speaker. And the price difference is under $1000.
2. The DSP optimizes the response curve for each driver set - the three 6.5 inch woofers are set 1, the front 5.25 inch drivers are set 2, the rear 5.25 inch drivers are set three, the front firing tweeters are set 4 and the rear firing tweeters are set 5. Ian/Andrew and team can measure each set of drivers separately, then as a unit, and after 100's of hours of testing, have a unit with an amazingly flat curve both on axis and the sound power curve.
3. Limit the bandwidth to each set of drivers. A heavy bass drum that drives the amp to near its limits won't have any effect on the midranges and tweeters.
There are other benefits - but these are the "macro" issues that are settled with the active speaker set up.
