The Active Speakers spot

Jack Russell?
OK.:blush: I've put my glasses on...….and I'm not going to stick my neck out any further other than to say it's a bull breed?
 
OK.:blush: I've put my glasses on...….and I'm not going to stick my neck out any further other than to say it's a bull breed?

You’re losing your touch mate...

93EE1702-4B1C-4E96-B6EF-E5346B142C31.jpeg
 
Enough of the pooch prevarication! What do the speakers sound like?
 
Enough of the pooch prevarication! What do the speakers sound like?

I will let you know properly in a few days time once I’ve had chance to have a play with them however initial impressions are they are very good indeed!!
 
I picked up the Gold 5's just before Christmas; I am running them hooked up to SMSL SU-8 DAC, with laptop as USB source for CD-quality FLACs.

I am very impressed with what I have heard so far - although these are my first ever studio monitors so I don't have much to compare them to.

The Tannoys certainly are in a completely different league to my existing amp/speaker setup - but that's a Sony STR-DA2400ES driving some ancient Wharfedale Diamond 8.3s in a home cinema config, so I think these were always likely to be a step up.

I am finding the detail and clarity is even outperforming my (none too shabby) headphones, so I am really pleased with my purchase thus far.
 
Bargain preamp here...


Four inputs and Bluetooth 5 APT-X.

Anybody after a dirt cheap very good active hifi now has no preamp excuse.

Nobsound are a solid brand. As well as having a funny name :thumbsup:

Double win.

One of the Nobsounds and a pair of, say, these,


gets you some fine music for much less than a passive set up. Less than £400!

Or,


£280 al! in.

Never been a better time for dirt cheap quality hifi.
 
Ps, Nobsound have such a good rep, I’d rather happily pair the Preamp,with more expensive Actives.

No reason at all not to add a decent dac to it either.

I’m considering getting one to experiment with my Adams.

If I do I’ll report back.
 
Ps, Nobsound have such a good rep, I’d rather happily pair the Preamp,with more expensive Actives.

No reason at all not to add a decent dac to it either.

I’m considering getting one to experiment with my Adams.

If I do I’ll report back.
If your looking to add a dac at reasonable cost the smsl m3 has 3 inputs and a headphone section for about 70quid
 
Whilst we are on preamps for actives then these look interesting -

Soncoz dacs with volume control (digital preamp) and fully balanced XLR outs plus coax out.

The more expensive (c£400) SDG1 and the stripped down LA-QXD1 (c£200) have put down some very impressive numbers (SINAD in the 120db region, that up with RME etc.) in some measurement reviews and the designer has solved the ES Sabre THD hump issue. Talking of which, the designer is the guy who did the Khadas Tone Board and regularly posts on the audiosciencereview site. Delivery has been delayed a little due to them finding the ES Hump solution and so have been waiting to put that into full production but units seem to be being shipped and the SDG1 is available at amazon. Just waiting for some listening tests results but the Khadas Dac I have is pretty impressive, nice neutral and tight sound with good bass extension.

 
Got some focals for the PC setup!

IMG_0748.JPG
 
Love the look of those things sir.

What do you think of them?

Very impressed so far. Had the devialet phantom reactors before but couldn’t monitor with them due to latency of the DSP. They had massive oomph but I think were a bit V shaped in the EQ.

The focals sound big, because they are. Really nice mids and good power at low volumes.

still tinkering with the settings!

from an aesthetic point of view I think they are lovely
 
Very impressed so far. Had the devialet phantom reactors before but couldn’t monitor with them due to latency of the DSP. They had massive oomph but I think were a bit V shaped in the EQ.

The focals sound big, because they are. Really nice mids and good power at low volumes.

still tinkering with the settings!

from an aesthetic point of view I think they are lovely

I’ll be very interested to hear what you think when your ears are accustomed to the new sound.

And I agree, far and away the best looking pro monitor speaker I’ve yet seen.

I’m jelly sir :eek:
 
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Several of us have wondered what the effect of 'activating' a high quality passive speaker would be. Well, seems like our own avforums reviewer, Ed Selley, found out...

In his recent review of the staggeringly expensive and (evidently) exceptionally capable Kudos Titan 505, Ed wrote the following:

'It is only fair to point out though that if you can hear them running as active speakers behind Exposure’s active crossover system, I would urge you to do so. What is already a tremendously fast and potent speaker somehow manages to get faster and more urgent. The feeling of ‘slam’ (a concept almost as definably vague as ‘timing’) is something that becomes tangible in this configuration.'


Now, at £7,000/pair in passive guise, this is truly a top-end product. Considerable care must have gone into the design and implementation of that passive crossover in order to obtain such impressive performance. The fact that 'activating' it improves sonic performance in the way described seems to me to vindicate the active approach (as if we didn't know that already).
 
Several of us have wondered what the effect of 'activating' a high quality passive speaker would be. Well, seems like our own avforums reviewer, Ed Selley, found out...

In his recent review of the staggeringly expensive and (evidently) exceptionally capable Kudos Titan 505, Ed wrote the following:

'It is only fair to point out though that if you can hear them running as active speakers behind Exposure’s active crossover system, I would urge you to do so. What is already a tremendously fast and potent speaker somehow manages to get faster and more urgent. The feeling of ‘slam’ (a concept almost as definably vague as ‘timing’) is something that becomes tangible in this configuration.'

Now, at £7,000/pair in passive guise, this is truly a top-end product. Considerable care must have gone into the design and implementation of that passive crossover in order to obtain such impressive performance. The fact that 'activating' it improves sonic performance in the way described seems to me to vindicate the active approach (as if we didn't know that already).

Could hardly agree more sir.

It’s why I’m reluctant to buy a Lyngdorf, even though I desperately want one.

it would mean using the preamp outputs, leaving nothing to use to add subs for Room perfects magic.
 
Could hardly agree more sir.

It’s why I’m reluctant to buy a Lyngdorf, even though I desperately want one.

it would mean using the preamp outputs, leaving nothing to use to add subs for Room perfects magic.

I may be misunderstanding, but if you want to use Lyngdorf amps to activate a passive speaker, then you’d need one the integrateds and a power amp (assuming a 2-way). If you got a lyngdorf power amp then you would connect integrated to power via coax, connect integrated and power to speakers via the speaker outputs to treble and bass respectively, then you’d have the analogue outputs on the integrated for your subs.
 
I may be misunderstanding, but if you want to use Lyngdorf amps to activate a passive speaker, then you’d need one the integrateds and a power amp (assuming a 2-way). If you got a lyngdorf power amp then you would connect integrated to power via coax, connect integrated and power to speakers via the speaker outputs to treble and bass respectively, then you’d have the analogue outputs on the integrated for your subs.

Yup, it’s even better than that as Lyngdorf amps allow for internal crossover selection between the integrated and a number of 2400s; so activating a two or three way passive speaker would be a breeze.

But I was referring to my current Adam actives (or better ones when the cash flows my way).

In that situation, using the integrated (2170, or 2120) I’d have to use the preamp outputs to drive my already active speakers, thereby leaving no preamp output on the Lyngdorf for the subs that I’d like to use to get the best from RoomPerfect.
 
Yup, it’s even better than that as Lyngdorf amps allow for internal crossover selection between the integrated and a number of 2400s; so activating a two or three way passive speaker would be a breeze.

But I was referring to my current Adam actives (or better ones when the cash flows my way).

In that situation, using the integrated (2170, or 2120) I’d have to use the preamp outputs to drive my already active speakers, thereby leaving no preamp output on the Lyngdorf for the subs that I’d like to use to get the best from RoomPerfect.

Gotcha. Surely there’s an inexpensive but decent DAC out there so you can use the coax out for the Adams?
 
Lyngdorf amps allow for internal crossover selection between the integrated and a number of 2400s;

I’m not sure about that. It looks to me like you can only configure one high pass and one low pass filter in the TDAI-2170, so that would limit you to adding a single additional power amp for 2-way operation. I’d love to be wrong but that’s very much how it looks to me in the settings.
 
Gotcha. Surely there’s an inexpensive but decent DAC out there so you can use the coax out for the Adams?

I’m trying to find out if it would be possible to use the 2170s digital output into a decent dac, then straight into the Adams, leaving the Lyngdorf preouts for subwoofer duty.

Is that what you mean?

I’m not certain that I could get the Lyngdorfs digital output to act as a digital preamp into a dac though, and, if I could, would it sound... unusual?

I‘ve no idea why, but it seems too odd to me... :D
 
I’m not sure about that. It looks to me like you can only configure one high pass and one low pass filter in the TDAI-2170, so that would limit you to adding a single additional power amp for 2-way operation. I’d love to be wrong but that’s very much how it looks to me in the settings.

Aha, you are most likely right sir.

My information is hearsay and I can’t even remember where I heard it.

Which is a bit of a pain, as I had a long term plan of making my AVI Trios active in that fashion.
 
I’m trying to find out if it would be possible to use the 2170s digital output into a decent dac, then straight into the Adams, leaving the Lyngdorf preouts for subwoofer duty.

Is that what you mean?

I’m not certain that I could get the Lyngdorfs digital output to act as a digital preamp into a dac though, and, if I could, would it sound... unusual?

I‘ve no idea why, but it seems too odd to me... :D

Yes, you can do exactly that. You can configure any of the outputs to be fixed or variable, full range or high or low pass filtered, and roomperfect on or off.

Obviously you’d be limited by how good the DAC is if you go that route..... or could you use the coax for the subs, in which case the quality of the outboard DAC would matter much less?
 

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