The Active Advantage

There are a number of advantages to using an active speaker system over a passive loudspeaker:

•The internal crossover is active, and its low power circuitry operates on line-level signals. It does not waste speaker-level power like a passive crossover with large coils, caps, and resistors.

•The input signals are crossed over before they reach the amplifiers, so each amplifier only receives the correct frequency range for its driver.

•The amplifiers are designed specifically for these speaker load impedances. There is no guesswork as to what load each amplifier has to drive, so they can provide maximum acoustic output from the speakers, yet minimize the danger of speaker damage due to overdriving a lesser amplifier.

•The connecting wires between the amplifier outputs and the drivers are kept to a minimum, so the damping factor of the amplifier isn’t compromised by the resistance of long speaker cables. In addition, all the power from the amplifier is transferred directly to the drivers with no speaker cable losses.

•The acoustic sum of the outputs from the two drivers is optimized electronically, as well as physically, so the amplitude response is flat and there is no lobing error.

•The presence of active circuits within the speaker cabinet allow the designer to add on extra details, such as a high quality mic/line input section and optional accessory modules.

In short, all the complex interconnected components in the system are designed to work in harmony with each other to produce the best possible sound.

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