DALI Rubicon 2 C
Active speakers provide an attractive all-in-one solution, with few, if any sonic compromises. They have amplification built directly into the loudspeaker, so they don’t need a separate amplifier. This saves the space and expense of extra components and speaker cables. They often also provide wireless connectivity, making them extremely convenient to set up in a living room or other domestic space.
Active speakers are often called wireless speakers, but this is misleading. While they don’t need speaker cables, they have to get their power from an electrical outlet. They may also use analog and digital audio cables to connect to audio sources, so your active speaker system won’t be truly wireless.
SVS Prime Wireless Powered Speaker System
Stereo pairs of active speakers come in two configurations:
- A pair of active speakers, each with its own amplifiers and associated electronics. Audio connections to the speakers may be wired, wireless or a combination of the two. The speakers may operate either:
- As peers, each identical to the other in design and function; or
- In a primary/secondary configuration. In this arrangement the primary speaker provides the secondary speaker with its audio input, either wirelessly or wired.
- An active speaker coupled with a passive speaker. The active speaker contains all the amplifiers and electronics for the pair, and connects to the passive speaker via a cable. All audio connections, wired or wireless, are made to the active speaker of the pair.
From “DALI Oberon C and Sound Hub Compact Whitepaper,” © DALI A/S
There’s much more to active speakers than just convenience. Multi-driver speakers need a crossover to route the signals for the various frequency ranges to the appropriate drivers. Passive speaker crossovers take the output from an amplifier and drive the speaker’s drivers directly. In an active speaker the crossover typically precedes the power amplifier, and each driver is connected directly to its own power amplifier.
Among the advantages of this are:
- The active speaker crossover operates with low-power signals of much less than a Watt, while crossovers in passive speakers must handle signals of tens or hundreds of Watts. Therefore, while passive speaker crossovers need components with high voltage and power handling capabilities, active speakers can use smaller crossover components. These smaller components can be of higher audio quality than those required in passive crossovers.
- Each driver is connected directly to its own power amplifier, which can therefore be optimised to precisely match the particular driver’s requirements. Also, the losses in passive crossovers can be avoided, raising the efficiency of the system.
- Many active speakers operate on digital signals (analog inputs are converted to digital before processing) and implement their crossovers using DSP[1].
- Digital crossovers can implement complex filters that would be difficult or impossible to implement using analog circuitry. This provides designers with a relatively unlimited choice of crossover designs.
- DSP can provide additional functionality in active speakers, including equalisation to shape the frequency response of the speaker, and it can be modified with a simple software upgrade.
DALI Oberon C and Sound Hub Compact
Active speakers are available to match a range of budgets. For example DALI provides the Oberon C series, comprising active versions of its highly successful entry level Oberon series. It also provides the Rubicon C series which is offers active versions of its acclaimed premium Rubicon series. Between these is the Callisto C series. There are also the Kubik One and Katch One active soundbars. SVS also provides an active speaker in the Prime Wireless Loudspeaker System.
Whether you’re looking for a simple, flexible high-end audio system, or high quality sound with maximum connectivity and convenience, you should consider and active speaker system. It may well offer the perfect solution.
© Wayne Butcher
[1] DSP: digital signal processing. DSP provides the ability to manipulated digital signals in complex and sophisticated ways that would be difficult or impossible to do for analog signals.
It’s hard to dispute any of the advantages of active speakers listed in the article above. In fact, I believe the article’s brevity necessitated glossing over some of the huge advantages – to name one or two, the ability to apply today’s DSP to drivers to tailor them not just to the speaker characteristics but to the amplifiers and even the room as well. Two, the opportunity to get rid of those non-linear passive crossovers cannot be overstated.
But why not take it to its logical conclusion? Get rid of the elephant in the room of the pictured active speakers above. The box. Largely there for commercial reasons. And, arguably, a bigger impediment to ‘good sound’ than even the passive crossovers.
If you dare to put aside all your absorbed audio religion (a tall order, I know) or if you were a newcomer to this pursuit of good sound or if you were looking to travel further on down the road of making changes to your system would it not make more sense to go with an open-baffle active speaker with DSP? With today’s streamed music there’s no longer even the need to do the analog-to-digital conversion mentioned above. You can take those streamed packets directly into the DSP processor.
There are companies that can offer this open-baffle approach in various price categories from sub-U$500 to multiples of thousands. Linkwitz, Spatial Audio, Pure Audio Project spring to mind to name a few that cover the range from DIY to turnkey and dollars to large dollars. You can dip your toe in the water almost any way you choose: roll your own, buy a kit which anyone who owns a screwdriver can assemble or invest in turnkey systems. Just my…
2 sense