Active vs. passive Mon.

  • Thread starter Thread starter guitarfreak12
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guitarfreak12

guitarfreak12

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ok, I've tried the search on this, but I guess I suck at it. Can any one tell me what the main QUALITY differences there are in passive and active monitors. I know the that yu have to have an amp for passive and so forth, but which one is better. And if I should save up and get passive, what kind of amp am I looking for.
 
Bryston seems to be the shit. And relatively cheap. acitve s mostly have lesser quality amps. But passive with high quality amp will cost more. As always; what's your budget and what do you want to do?

G
 
The advantage of active monitors is that the amps and the speakers are matched for best results. For instance, the Event 20/20 monitors actualy have a wider frequency response when power internally verses the passives. Powered monitors are usually bi-amped meaning seperate amps drive the tweeter and the woofer.
 
Ronan said:
The advantage of active monitors is that the amps and the speakers are matched for best results. For instance, the Event 20/20 monitors actualy have a wider frequency response when power internally verses the passives. Powered monitors are usually bi-amped meaning seperate amps drive the tweeter and the woofer.
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That's the kind of stuff I was wondering about, so to get the same quality in matching, I'd have to put out big bucks for a really good amp huh?
 
Freak,

> Can any one tell me what the main QUALITY differences there are in passive and active monitors. <

Assuming otherwise equal speaker driver components, there are many advantages of active monitors for the typical project studio, plus a simpler hookup with less pieces to carry if you do remote sessions:

Active speakers are typically biamped, which often yields a cleaner sound with less distortion. And biamping offers more ways to optimize the crossover performance because it uses active rather than passive components. Also, the power amps will be well matched to the speakers, they won't have a fan, and the wires from amp to speaker are shorter which improves damping. But to me the overwhelming advantage, as implemented in the Mackies anyway, is that the woofer cone's motion can be included within the power amp's feedback loop to reduce distortion by a significant amount when compared to passive speakers with an external power amp.

--Ethan
 
Ethan Winer said:
But to me the overwhelming advantage, as implemented in the Mackies anyway, is that the woofer cone's motion can be included within the power amp's feedback loop to reduce distortion by a significant amount when compared to passive speakers with an external power amp.
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Have not heard this b4. What do you mean that the actual motion of the cone is included in the feedback loop of the amp? Perhaps I need to know what a feedback loop truly is before I can understand what you're saying here, but this thread is about an issue i think about sometimes, so i felt compelled to jump on this new info i'm not aware of
 
How good does your room have to be before you notice the difference?
 
yo,Ethan!

I'm still diggin' your resonator panel traps in my room! What a DIFFERENCE!!!-the true "cart befor the horse" when monitors come into play...
 
BB,

> do you mean that the actual motion of the cone is included in the feedback loop of the amp? <

Yes, exactly. The power amp that drives the woofer has a current sensing section that can tell if the current that should be drawn at any given moment is in fact what is actually being drawn. Any deviation represents distortion, and is corrected immediately.

> Perhaps I need to know what a feedback loop truly is before I can understand what you're saying here <

You might find my Hardware Tutor interesting:

www.ethanwiner.com/HWTutor.html

This tutorial explains the basics of electronics but without any math. I'm sure you'll enjoy the section that explains negative feedback.

--Ethan
 
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