invaderzim
Senior Member
A) When Andrew Jones makes them:
Answer - when they cost a shed load of cash. Oops, little bit of cynicism there......
Recently I've been looking at active, preferably wireless, speakers as a possible replacement primary home system and something that surprised me is just how many audiophile speaker companies offer such products as well as the more professional monitor focused speaker manufacturers. KEF, Dynaudio, DALI, Meridian, Acoustic Energy and others all have offerings as well as the higher profile outfits who have really been pushing active speakers such as B&O. Which makes me question whether the audiophile micro-bubble inhabited by magazines and reviewers is an even smaller bubble than I thought and that the studious avoidance of active designs and continuing focus on passive designs and traditional components is not as firmly entrenched as I assume?
Not all magazines/revewers have ignored them.Which makes me question whether the audiophile micro-bubble inhabited by magazines and reviewers is an even smaller bubble than I thought and that the studious avoidance of active designs and continuing focus on passive designs and traditional components is not as firmly entrenched as I assume?
... and are all analog inside - who wants this digital grainy shit inside his beautiful speakers anywayAnswer - when they cost a shed load of cash. Oops, little bit of cynicism there......
He's liked them since at least 2013A) When Andrew Jones makes them:
I was seriously considering the Navis but the choice of a tiny midwoofer perplexes me. It is precisely the use of a coax that allows larger CtC spacing without as much vertical lobing because sound path length differences are small compared to the wavelengths at the crossover region. Puzzling packaging. The R3 form factor is the sweet spot but I'm loathe to continue with passive, and the best direct-radiating coax drivers are all proprietary (Genelec, KEF, Technics, ELAC), so we are held to their odd packaging choices (eg the Navis) or their need to appeal to the legacy hifi demographic (eg. with passives)
@Ilkless,
I've the impression that room correction with GLM 3 might (I don't know) put the Genelec SAMs above the rest.
Maybe a cheaper 8340/8330+GLM3 is better than the Navis. Of course, the more expensive coax 8331/8341 should be in another league.
I think proper room correction is important and it turns out that most of active speakers just put some funny eq bottoms to do that. You can do the same from any software, but that's not serious room correction.
I want a coax design for the superior vertical polars (and more generally, overall directivity and coherence). But none hit the sweet spot for form factor, quality and features for me. As I said, I like the KEF R3 form factor (6.5-inch woofer + a ~4-5 inch coax) as it takes the brunt of the excursion away from the midrange driver, gives good vertical polars and for my apartment, sufficient bass extension and SPL. I also really enjoyed auditioning the R3 and R300 previously. Yet nobody with a good coax driver (Technics, Genelec, KEF and ELAC) has an active option in that form factor. I suppose I could go LS50W with subs, but I don't like the pricing, prefer an outboard streamer (fine with DSP crossovers and amping internally), and would rather like a dedicated midrange.
The Genelec 8341 has similar form factor to the Navis, the 8331 is smaller. However, they are much more expensive.
He's liked them since at least 2013
https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-the-new-champ-of-desktop-speakers-adam-audio-f5/
https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-the-new-champ-of-desktop-speakers-adam-audio-f5/']https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-the-new-champ-of-desktop-speakers-adam-audio-f5/']https://www.cnet.com/news/emotiva-airmotiv5s-speaker-review-audiophiliac/']https://www.cnet.com/news/emotiva-airmotiv5s-speaker-review-audiophiliac/
I've heard the 5s and quite liked it . I'm not sure if I have heard the F5 though I have heard Adam Audio actives.