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Just discovered! - 3 Way begging for electronics

scibry

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Hi all!

So, every cloud has a silver lining. I lost my wife, then I shortly lost my job, then I lost my house, and now I'm jobless and living with my parents. So....boo-hoo is me right?

However, yesterday my mom said "Hey, remember those speakers you started building before you met WhatsHerFace? Why don't you look at those?"

And so I did. And I have a three way speaker, the cabinets are built, the drivers are mounted, and the binding posts ready.

Right now the drivers are:
Bohlender Graebener Neo3PDR (planar magnetic)
PartsExpress Reference RS125 (5.25")
PartsExpress Reference RS270 (10")

Now, to start thinking about electronics!
 

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scibry

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If anyone has any thoughts on electronics let me know!

One requirement is that I want to do Dirac, so I am almost for sure getting a Minidsp just for that.

I could do Minidsp -> Behringer DCX2496, or Minidsp (Dirac Digital) - > Minidsp (Crossover, Digital in -> Digital out) -> 3 DACs (probably 3 Schiit Modis?), but that seems like a hassle.

The Behringer doesn't appear to be the best DAC in the world though...there are some aftermarket mods for the analog out stage, but I'd rather not do that... Any ideas?
 

andreasmaaan

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MiniDSP SHD may be your best bet. All-in-one DSP and DAC with excellent DAC measurements, in the same league as good standalone DACs, plus DIRAC and all else you need for crossover implementation.
 

mansr

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Three way active I think, is the way to go.
Digital crossover filters might be something to consider. Much more flexible, and easier to tinker with, than line level active crossovers, let alone speaker level.
 

Wombat

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My DCX2496 is an excellent product. Works a treat. :)
 

maverickronin

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MiniDSP SHD may be your best bet. All-in-one DSP and DAC with excellent DAC measurements, in the same league as good standalone DACs, plus DIRAC and all else you need for crossover implementation.

That's only got 4 analog outs though. He'd need 6 without going for some weird half & half arrangement.
 

garbulky

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3 way begging? Well if that's what does it for ya, who am I to judge?!
 

sergeauckland

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If anyone has any thoughts on electronics let me know!

One requirement is that I want to do Dirac, so I am almost for sure getting a Minidsp just for that.

I could do Minidsp -> Behringer DCX2496, or Minidsp (Dirac Digital) - > Minidsp (Crossover, Digital in -> Digital out) -> 3 DACs (probably 3 Schiit Modis?), but that seems like a hassle.

The Behringer doesn't appear to be the best DAC in the world though...there are some aftermarket mods for the analog out stage, but I'd rather not do that... Any ideas?
Mine works fine into my B&W 801f. I did have one modded, as the modder offered to do it for free, and whilst it measured better, the standard one is perfectly good enough for transparency, which is all I ask of any audio product. However, the modded one failed, and I bought a standard replacement and never felt the need for modding again.

The important thing with any active crossover, especially one DSP-based, is to get the gain structure right for the whole system so there's no excessive gain that makes the volume control work down at the bottom all the time. Get that right, and the DCX2496 is as good as it needs to be. Its steep filters and time alignment for drivers makes it very easy to setup.

S
 
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scibry

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I've found two options if you only want to do Digital to Analog conversion once. I almost feel like going with the pricer option 2 is a better idea, because you have a better idea of the analog output stage being pretty competent... I don't know though!

Option 1:
Dirac Room Correction (DDRC-22D) ($725)
Behringer DCX2496 (X-over) ($300)
= $1025

Or

Option 2:
Dirac Room Correction (DDRC-22D) ($725)
MiniDsp x-over (Nanodigi 2x8) $170
Three DACs (3xSchiit Modi 3) $300
= $1,195
 

jhaider

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I've found two options if you only want to do Digital to Analog conversion once. I almost feel like going with the pricer option 2 is a better idea, because you have a better idea of the analog output stage being pretty competent... I don't know though!

Option 1:
Dirac Room Correction (DDRC-22D) ($725)
Behringer DCX2496 (X-over) ($300)
= $1025

Or

Option 2:
Dirac Room Correction (DDRC-22D) ($725)
MiniDsp x-over (Nanodigi 2x8) $170
Three DACs (3xSchiit Modi 3) $300
= $1,195

Options 3 and 4: DDRC-22D miniDSP and PWR-ICE plate amps, or the new Hypex Fusion amps.
Option 5 (lowest cost, most work): DDRC-24, 2 standard amps, passive midrange-tweeter crossover.
 
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scibry

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Hey guys, thanks for the tip of the Hypex Fusion. I hadn't heard of them before. I'm looking into it.
 

oivavoi

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I’m very happy with the Driverack Venu360. It has a digital aes/ebu input which I’m feeding directly with a toslink cable from my Sonos connect, and a toslink to aes/ebu converter. Does crossover, digital eq (IIR-based) and simple automatic room eq. 6 analog outputs. I only use the room eq in the bass, but I think it works great there. You can also get the driverack PA2 which is cheaper, but it doesn’t have digital input.
 
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scibry

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I’m very happy with the Driverack Venu360. It has a digital aes/ebu input which I’m feeding directly with a toslink cable from my Sonos connect, and a toslink to aes/ebu converter. Does crossover, digital eq (IIR-based) and simple automatic room eq. 6 analog outputs. I only use the room eq in the bass, but I think it works great there. You can also get the driverack PA2 which is cheaper, but it doesn’t have digital input.

Perfect, I was looking for something like that. Thanks for the help!
 

garbulky

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I’m very happy with the Driverack Venu360. It has a digital aes/ebu input which I’m feeding directly with a toslink cable from my Sonos connect, and a toslink to aes/ebu converter. Does crossover, digital eq (IIR-based) and simple automatic room eq. 6 analog outputs. I only use the room eq in the bass, but I think it works great there. You can also get the driverack PA2 which is cheaper, but it doesn’t have digital input.
What converter do you use?
 
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