I want to check whether a preconception I have about Active Vs. Passive speakers is true.

[woppinger]

Some here might suggest spending $75 on something like a Fosi V3 rather than $300 on a Gjallarhorn...

 

[Chrispy]

Anything from 50 to 120Hz usually.
80 and 100Hz are most common.


Depends on the budget.

Thanks, didn't realize so much flexibility on matching active speaker/sub sets out there for pro gear.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Most studio subs have high-passed Line outs for the Mains, even super inexpensive ones like the ESI 10S.

It is rather rare on HT subs though.
A notable exception are the original SB-1000 and PB-1000.

Yeah, I have an SB-1000, but I decided not to use that feature since my Kali IN-8v2s roll off very smoothly and setting the SB-1000 low-pass at about 60Hz makes for a pretty transparent hand-off. That way I can control the sub's level via an external passive control rather than having to reach around the sub to do that.

 

[Quinton595]

Granted, I know the Gjallarhorn is limited, but frankly, even my $75 set of Altec-Lansing 2.1 computer speakers go way, way louder than I will ever be able to play them, just running off the 3mm jack out of the computer. Actual bookshelf speakers running off an actual amp will be more than loud enough, regardless of the strength of the amp, or the sensitivity of the speakers. I doubt I'd ever turn my speakers up past 20% volume, considering my current little ones never get turned up past about 25%.

Now, whether the Gjallarhorn is better than something cheaper like the Fosi is another matter entirely, but frankly, I'm okay with the price, simply for the matched aesthetics of the schiit stack.

The only question is whether a Gjallarhorn + my dad's passive bookshelf speakers and whatever sub i can find would be better than taking that money and just buying an active set for $300.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I'm not really sure why you have asked the question. You've made up your mind. Get the Gjallarhorn and enjoy.

 

[Chrispy]

Granted, I know the Gjallarhorn is limited, but frankly, even my $75 set of Altec-Lansing 2.1 computer speakers go way, way louder than I will ever be able to play them, just running off the 3mm jack out of the computer. Actual bookshelf speakers running off an actual amp will be more than loud enough, regardless of the strength of the amp, or the sensitivity of the speakers. I doubt I'd ever turn my speakers up past 20% volume, considering my current little ones never get turned up past about 25%.

Now, whether the Gjallarhorn is better than something cheaper like the Fosi is another matter entirely, but frankly, I'm okay with the price, simply for the matched aesthetics of the schiit stack.

The only question is whether a Gjallarhorn + my dad's passive bookshelf speakers and whatever sub i can find would be better than taking that money and just buying an active set for $300.

You'd need to make approrpriate comparisons for power/sensitiviity which you don't seen to be bothering with as far as your general assumption goes. Percentage isn't a very good metric, particularly if the volume control is logarithmic as many are now. What are the particulars of your dad's speakers?

 

[Zek]

As per Schiit site:
Power Output:
Stereo, 8 Ohms: 10W RMS per channel
Stereo, 4 Ohms: 15W RMS per channel
In my opinion, it is a very weak power for the requested price.

 

[Petrushka]

KEF makes active speakers in the multi-thousand dollar range, so there’s no hard and fast rule.

A lot of active speakers are wireless. Some battery powered.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Very expensive active speakers are relatively rare, not because passives are generally better, but because both the manufacturers and the consumers are conservative. Consumers that typically buy very expensive speakers are also often negative to digital and/or digital signal processing, which makes them default to being critical to active speakers.

So low demand from consumers = not much incentive for the passive speaker manufacturers to switch. The competence necessary to build active speakers isn't necessarily present either, so it also demands a switch in competence and/or people.

 

[Graham849]

An active speaker whose amp dies, is a dead speaker, separates allow change. A good set of passive speakers should last years.

Less and less places are selling passive speakers. Twenty years ago there were over twenty places in Canberra selling passive speakers. Soon there will only be one. Lots of places selling "active" and " bluetooth" abominations .

 

[LTig]

Granted, I know the Gjallarhorn is limited, but frankly, even my $75 set of Altec-Lansing 2.1 computer speakers go way, way louder than I will ever be able to play them, just running off the 3mm jack out of the computer. Actual bookshelf speakers running off an actual amp will be more than loud enough, regardless of the strength of the amp, or the sensitivity of the speakers. I doubt I'd ever turn my speakers up past 20% volume, considering my current little ones never get turned up past about 25%.

Percent is a rather meaningless value as the power the amp outputs depends in the gain of the amp and the input voltage, which both are unknown.

Now, whether the Gjallarhorn is better than something cheaper like the Fosi is another matter entirely, but frankly, I'm okay with the price, simply for the matched aesthetics of the schiit stack.

The only question is whether a Gjallarhorn + my dad's passive bookshelf speakers and whatever sub i can find would be better than taking that money and just buying an active set for $300.

If the speakers are decent then go for a decent amp. There are lots of them tested here. The amp should output at least the amount of wattage the speaker is claimed to handle. This way you can be sure that it never clips (helps to protect the tweeter against thermal overload when clipping).

If the speakers are rather bad your budget of $700 should give you a decent pair of active studio monitors with a sound quality mostly unreached by a pair of passive speakers and a power amp for the same price. For a budget of $300 look for a used pair of active speakers.

 

[dualazmak]

Is there a "high-fidelity" way to properly split the signal to speakers, tweeters, and subwoofers? Is it some other kind of device, like a preamp, or is it just better-quality crossfading hardware in the subwoofer or speakers themselves?

My project thread would be of your interest and reference, I assume.
You can find my latest system setup here in post #931 on my project thread.

 

[sigbergaudio]

An active speaker whose amp dies, is a dead speaker, separates allow change. A good set of passive speakers should last years.

This has been discussed 50 times on this forum. This can be the case, but isn't necessarily the case. Many active speaker manufacturers (especially in the more expensive end) offers service / replacement parts.

 

[Quinton595]

My dad has two sets of speakers:

Polk audio RTI4

And some ESS amt5
The ESS are way too big to use as desktop speakers, so it's just the Polks.
Nominal impedance: 8 ohms.
Voltage sensitivity: 89dB/W/m.
Recommended amplification: 20-125W.

Well, I guess that answers that. There's no way I could run these off the gjallarhorn.

So rather than buying a $300 gjallarhorn amp and then another few hundred on passive speakers that are sensitive enough to run off it, I'm better off just spending $300 on some active speakers.

 

[Zek]

I'm better off just spending $300 on some active speakers.

Or you can keep the speakers you have and get a stereo amplifier for around $100-150...

 

[Quinton595]

Or you can keep the speakers you have and get a stereo amplifier for around $100-150...

Got any recommendations for ones that are approximately the same size and design language as a Jotunheim and Modius? I.e. little black boxes?

 

[kemmler3D]

So surprising that it makes me think I'm just getting something wrong, and don't understand how it actually works.

You're not the one getting things wrong, when it comes to minutiae of DAC colorations, which are usually nonexistent, vs. the importance of other things in the chain.

If you mostly listen to headphones, I'm assuming you use a PC or Mac for most of your listening.

In that case, you don't even need to worry about the sub crossover, you can just use EQ to integrate the speakers and sub.

Also, I definitely recommend using EQ on your headphones. It's a cheap / free way to upgrade the sound considerably. While you can find people who are afraid of DSP as if it had some poisonous effect on sound quality, it simply doesn't. Case in point: pretty much every album you listen to uses DSP and digital EQ in particular for mastering.

Got any recommendations for ones that are approximately the same size and design language as a Jotunheim and Modius? I.e. little black boxes?

I'd say get one of the Fosi amps (they're little and black) or Aiyima. Throw $80-150 at that and use your dad's polks... should be decent enough for 1 hour per month. The Gjallhorns are going to distort if you listen to the polks even kinda loud. 10w is really not enough to work with when it comes to peaks.

 

[Chrispy]

My dad has two sets of speakers:

Polk audio RTI4

And some ESS amt5
The ESS are way too big to use as desktop speakers, so it's just the Polks.
Nominal impedance: 8 ohms.
Voltage sensitivity: 89dB/W/m.
Recommended amplification: 20-125W.

Well, I guess that answers that. There's no way I could run these off the gjallarhorn.

So rather than buying a $300 gjallarhorn amp and then another few hundred on passive speakers that are sensitive enough to run off it, I'm better off just spending $300 on some active speakers.

No, the "minimum" wattage is simply a guess at 20wpc as to what you might find a suitable power range, but it could work for lower power requirements (nearfield, low volume).
I'd still look at active speakers, something like the Kali or JBL 8" models perhaps.

 

[Quinton595]

You're not the one getting things wrong, when it comes to minutiae of DAC colorations, which are usually nonexistent, vs. the importance of other things in the chain.

If you mostly listen to headphones, I'm assuming you use a PC or Mac for most of your listening.

In that case, you don't even need to worry about the sub crossover, you can just use EQ to integrate the speakers and sub.

Also, I definitely recommend using EQ on your headphones. It's a cheap / free way to upgrade the sound considerably. While you can find people who are afraid of DSP as if it had some poisonous effect on sound quality, it simply doesn't. Case in point: pretty much every album you listen to uses DSP and digital EQ in particular for mastering.


I'd say get one of the Fosi amps (they're little and black) or Aiyima. Throw $80-150 at that and use your dad's polks... should be decent enough for 1 hour per month. The Gjallhorns are going to distort if you listen to the polks even kinda loud. 10w is really not enough to work with when it comes to peaks.

Actually yeah, I use PeaceEQ right now, it really improves my HD800s, to my ears.

I didn't know you could also use it to affect how sound is distributed to speakers and a sub, I'll have to learn how to do that, thanks!

As for the Fosi, it's absolutely wild to me that a little box like that can put out 30x as much power as a unit four times its physical size, like the Gjallarhorn. I realize a big part of that is the Gjallarhorn having an onboard power supply, but still. Makes me wonder why they chose to go with such a small output wattage. Goes to show I know nothing about audio engineering.

I will browse the market for decent little black box power amps like the Fosi, and I'll see if I can find something that works with the Polks.

Based on their nominal impedance and voltage sensitivity, you would all agree that the 125 W requirement is accurate, right? That's what was written on a review, but it's also the same number I got on a calculator plugging in a peak spl of 110db.

 

[Zek]

a peak spl of 110db

Are you kidding, that's SPL for ear bleeding...