passive vs active speakers for ht set up!!!

[harsha.chelikani]

hello everyone im a newbie doing his first research in audio..i am considering buying a onkyo tx-nr5007/denon 4810 and pairing it with good floorstands in the range of 2000-2500$..is it possible to get better sound quality for the money spent if i go for a similarly priced pre amp and connect it to a good active speakers in a 5.1 setup..which would yeild me the best sq and et all...i mainly listen to metal music and gaming and ocassional movie watching..thanks in advance

 

[Hi-Fi]

A warm welcome to you. Personally I am a great fan of active loudspeaker systems and I use Genelec active loudspeakers myself. There are many performance advantages active speaker systems offer over passive ones. But they are quite expensive to manufacture hence they dont come cheap. You can find many discussions on this subject if you search the forum.

 

[venkatcr]

It is generally believed that DSP and amplification at the very end is the best in terms of signal loss and removing distortion. This is what Meridian does with its active speakers that have DSP also built in. At the source, the signals are decoded but kept in digital form. They are then sent individually to the respective speakers where the DSP, DAC, and amplification is done.

These kind of systems are generally very expensive to get the kind of performance you could get with passive speakers. There is a lot of redundancy as DSP, DAC and amplification are repeated for each speakers. You also need digital cables of long length that are expensive.

Cheers

 

[Hi-Fi]

The Genelec system I have is very cheap in comparison to Meridian. I use my old IBM ThinkPad R61i with a 500GB HDD running iTunes with all my CD's ripped in uncompressed Aiff & Wave format. In this laptop old PCMCIA slot, I have installed a Digigram VxPocketV2 professional soundcard which has a digital audio output that is connected to the Genelec 7260A subwoofer digital audio input and its digital audio output is connected to the digital audio input of the left Genelec 8240A main speaker and its digital audio output is connected to the digital audio input of the right Genelec 8240A main speaker. So only three short digital XLR AES/EBU cables are used to wire the whole audio of this system

For the volume control, I have installed the Genelec Loudspeaker Manager software on this same laptop that is connected via USB to the Genelec interface box which is connected to the subwoofer and main speakers via three short standard CAT5 cables. With the supplied calibrated microphone, this GLM kit also automatically calibrates the whole system quite accurately for acoustic loading, room modes, frequency response, phase, distance and level. All these settings can be edited if required. I use a Griffin Powermate USB Knob to raise and lower the system volume. When this knob is turned, the GLM software sends a command to the speakers via the CAT5 cable to raise or lower the volume in the amps in the active speakers. This way the digital signal level is always at maximum full level from source to destination right up to the active amps inside the speakers. If you press this Griffin knob, the system mutes. And if you hold the knob down for a few seconds, the subwoofer gets bypassed and the main speakers play full range. With the GLM software, I have created a few user EQ's for rare use when I am playing old music that's recorded poorly. The whole system cost:

IBM ThinkPad R61i Laptop Computer Eur 1000
1 no Digigram Vx Pocket V2 Soundcard Eur 500
2 nos Genelec 8240A Main DSP Spkrs Eur 1900
1 no Genelec 7260A Active Subwoofer Eur 1700
Genelec Loudspk Manager AutoCal Kit Eur 500
All Audio & Power Cables Cost Around Eur200
Total system cost Eur 5800 only. Not bad eh? For a system of this quality!

 

[venkatcr]

You have a 2.0 system for roughly 3.6 lakhs? I am sure the OP can do much better with an AVR and passive speakers.

Cheers

 

[GeorgeO]

Interesting solution, how do they sound? I would love to audition these on a trip to Bombay at some future point in time. I am also a fan of uncompressed audio though alas, my systems are a bit more conventional.

 

[Hi-Fi]

The Genelec DSP speaker system is a dream solution, easy to setup and use, with amazing performance. I have not heard better. The Digigram Vx Pocket V2 is a high quality professional soundcard with low-latency WDM DirectSound, ASIO, and Wave drivers. But unfortunately it needs the old PCMCIA slot which is rare to find on most new laptops these days. So the popular cost effective, easily available, professional soundcard for this purpose would be the M-Audio USB Fast Track Pro. which has both analog and digital outputs. This whole setup provides pure audio quality all the way, at a sort of reasonable price. I personally love it for its performance and convenience.

You can check out the Genelec DSP demo system at PANDAM Professional Audio which is one size larger, the 8250A+7270A when you visit Bombay

 

[harsha.chelikani]

thanks venkat and hifi for your replies...can you suggest me the best floor stands i can get in india for around lakh and a half...few good ones i spotted online were spendor a5/a6, b&w 683.

 

[venkatcr]

For your kind of tastes in music and movies, I would lean more towards US/Canadian brands such as DefTech, Martin Logan etc. These are easily available in your price bracket.

Cheers

 

[Pandamaudio]

Hi Venkat, Mr. S Kangayan of Studio Care in Madras is organising Genelec technical seminars on Thu 5th Aug from 2pm to 5pm at Govt. Film & TV Institute, Taramani and thereafter on Fri 6th Aug from 10am to 4pm at 4 Frames Entertainment Preview Theatre, 30 (Old No 18) 5th Cross Street, Lake Area, Nungambakkam.

Kangayan who is the owner of Studio Care Service Center in Madras, is trained in Finland at the Genelec HQ to service / repair all their products and is a well known figure in the whole South Indian audio studio industry.

These technical seminars are mainly organised for people from the recording industry, but if you or anyone from HiFiVision are interested to attend, please feel free to call Kangayan on his mobile: +91 9884059436. He will be happy to have HiFiVision members attend his seminars.

The seminar topics cover
Interaction between loudspeakers and rooms, the problems and solutions
Placement of loudspeakers for stereo and surround monitoring in a room
Detail explanation of all Genelec technologies and how they work
How to implement monitoring for various multichannel surround formats
Recording studio control room layout & design
Subwoofers and the use of LFE channel & bass management systems

 

[venkatcr]

Thanks. I will certainly call him and talk to him

Cheers

 

[Studio Care]

Hello to Everybody in this community, I am S.Kangayan from Studio Care, Chennai a new member.

:signthankspin: I would like to thank Mr Prasanth of Pandam Audio, Mumbai for informing this community about our Genelec Technical Seminars held last week. And our sincere thanks to all the members who had participated in our seminar from this community.

Cheers

 

[denom]

Was just doing a search on Genelec threads & found this thread!

How come there was no write up on the seminar held in August 2010??? I believe a few of our FM's plus venkatcr our moderator had attended this seminar. Wonder why they did not write about their experiences