The other big difference is that, without the imperative to cover every product that advertises and to do so individually, we can adopt a far more system-focussed approach, working not just with specific products, but combinations of products in a system context. We can spend more time on accessories, ancillaries and questions of set up. It’s partly a conscious path, partly just something that happens. But looking at the nature and identity of the products we’ve covered tells its own story – and reveals a distinct direction of travel. A path that heads firmly in the direction of better SYSTEM performance.
It might be argued that in this particular case, the point of departure was the various CH Precision power amps, with their switchable operating modes, but they just made my existing fascination with bi-amped systems easier to satisfy. Then there’s the Stenheim, Clarisys and Peak Consult speakers – all of which respond with gusto to being bi-amped. The Clarisys take it further still with a fully active solution, while Stenheim offer a part-active option on the U3 – which you have to figure they will extend to the U2 and (hopefully) the A5 too. The AvantGarde speakers also offer an active option, an essential element in their current drive amplification option – an option that essentially kills all the passive alternatives I’ve tried irrespective of price. The single-ended crowd will throw up their hands in horror, but sorry guys, you’ve got way too fond of the sugar in your coffee. The Neodio amplifiers absolutely sing in bi-amp systems, especially teamed with the Living Voice OBX RW4 or R25…
What do all these products have in common? One way or another they seek to (or allow you to) minimise the intrusive, musically lossy and dynamically constipating impact of complex, passive crossovers. It’s worth remembering that the ‘proper’ name for a passive network is a ‘subtractive crossover’: what it subtracts is excess output from the different drivers; what generally gets subtracted along the way (along with overall phase coherence) is much of the life, energy, vitality and expressive range in the musical performance. It’s little wonder that collectively, so much of what we do at Gy8 is all about avoiding passive crossovers (or at least their musical impact) whenever possible.
By vertically bi-amping speakers, you spread the electrical demands of their impedance characteristics and back EMF across two channels and two power supplies.
A designer can prioritise a benign load and reasonable sensitivity, as in the case of the Stenheim or Living Voice speakers. It means eschewing certain driver types or materials and, in general, using 6 or 12dB crossover slopes, but properly engineered the gains easily outweigh the limitations.
Or you can choose to electrically compensate for impedance, like Peak Consult, who achieve remarkable dynamics and musical coherence despite their wide bandwidth designs and moderate sensitivity.
Active or part-active operation can be excellent, but presents a different set of challenges, with the electronic crossover needing to at least match the performance level of your line-stage – and we know how difficult THAT is.
None of this was planned, but nor is it a happy accident. Any voyage of discovery is shaped by those things it discovers along the way. This path leads inevitably to the question of how little crossover can you do with – or how much can you do without? Is it practical and plausible to eliminate passive crossovers altogether and, if so, at what price in both monetary and performance terms? Drivers claiming full-range (or near full-range) performance exist. Indeed, they’ve existed for years, starting with the likes of the Lowther and other, similar designs. Then there’s the more modern, bending wave drivers from Manger and Göbel, as well as any number of electrostatic or planar-magnetic designs, although increasingly these depend on separate high-frequency units or sub-divided panels. In the same way, most of the manger and all of the Göbel bending-wave designs use supplementary bass drivers, whether active or passive. Even so, they still struggle to generate the dynamic range that should be one of their advantages. Despite that, the concept of a crossover-less loudspeaker (or as close as it’s sensible to get) remains an enduring and enticing prospect and, one that given our general direction of travel, we were inevitably going to encounter and investigate sooner rather than later.
