Active of Passive Speakers

Hi,

Migrating from PC card to M-audio 1010

For speakers, what are the pros and cons to the following:

8 active speakers directly to the audio interface

or

8 passive speakers connected to an amplifier.

Thanks,

Paul

Paul,

There are good options for both passive and active designs. In general active monitors have certain advantages such ad bi-amplification and complex crossover networks such as fourth order Linkwitz-Riley designs that are much more amenable to low level circuits. My personal favorite is the original US made Mackie HR24 which trades for around $600 a pair on eBay. I strongly suggest starting with one pair of very high quality speakers and add more of the exact same model as funds allow. Having identical speakers is important when using multiples in groups so that timbre does not shift as notes are assigned from speaker to speaker.

A good configuration IMO with a 1010LT would be three pairs in a group with octaves and ranks cycled, channels 7 and 8 assigned to a subwoofer and a pair of satellites for bass pipes, and channels 9 and 10 (using a Gefen DAC) for an Aux mix to drive a rear pair for reverberation.

Joe Hardy
Paramount Organ Works

[mdyde]

Hello Paul,

(Topic moved here.)

If you search the forum for 'passive' you'll probably find quite a few relevant previous discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of passive vs. active speakers.

My future choice will be active speakers.

Right now I have 4 small passive speakers and 2 m-audio cards (1 stereo channel each)
I want to setup 2 audio groups in HW4

I want to send some ranks to each audio group.

From each audio card, I want to feed into a small amp and get the output of HW into the four speakers without having to switch a button. What kind of amp will handle this (200W output).

Thanks

Paul

Hi Paul

Have a look at the STA 1504 4 channel amp from StageLine. They also do a 6 and an 8 channel version. I have heard these used in a commercial organ and they seemed OK.

Nigel

I actually have a Stageline STA 8-channel amp. It runs silently (from what I can tell so far) but I haven't got as far as connecting it up to my console yet unfortunately to see if there's any fan or hum when used in anger. It's an eight channel amp so would seem like an ideal match for an 8 channel sound card. Retails at around £300 on Ebay new but I got mine from the same source for a bargain basement price as I was the only bidder!

Now, the $64000 question. What speakers should I pair up with my 8 channel amp? One idea I did toy with, given that I'll be playing surround samples, was to have a pair of rear speakers, a subwoofer from the digital output, and three pairs of cones of different frequencies driven by the six remaining channels (ie a DIY speaker, using digital crossovers). I've also read great things about B&K 600 series, Mission et al for classical music - but I don't want to buy expensive speakers that don't pair up with my amp in case I inadvertently roger them....

Hello Paul and organorak,
This is a topic where you will get a ton of opinions and there are all kinds of great choices out there. I too am using a 1010LT, my space is a small office of about 10' x 12'. I am of the school of using a combination of larger and smaller speakers and using their features by sending various ranks to them, but others will highly recommend using the same size smaller speakers and a sub. I feel both are very good choices, budget plays a role.

If you're looking for a good smaller passive speaker and not break the bank, I would highly recommend looking into the Polk Audio line-up. I purchased a pair of their T15 bookshelf speakers and I can not say enough good about them. They make an outstanding HW speaker at modest power levels (but offer more than enough juice to wake up the neighbors!) and are of great quality and are very reasonably priced. I am also using larger 3 way speakers, and if a person looks around they can be found quite reasonably priced new and used as well. I would just say, if you are in a smaller room for home personal use, there is no need to go too crazy with the really high end equipment. The lower priced items should do the job very nicely if carefully selected and set up.

Marc