Sigberg Audio MANTA Wideband, Dual Cardioid, Coaxial Speakers

[sigbergaudio]

​

Starting this thread to share a bit about our flagship active speaker / monitor, the Sigberg Audio Manta! This will be a long and somewhat technical thread, but I will try to divide it a bit to make it readable. I will also not dive too deep into each aspect, leaving that to subsequent posts / answering questions that may come.

The Manta was launched summer 2023, and it is unique in many respects. What if you could have a speaker system that ensured tight, even bass and great soundstage in a normal living space? That's what the Manta provides.

Some key points about the sound:

• The imaging, soundstage and immersive qualities of the Manta is beyond anything I have ever heard, including speakers at many many times its price.
• The Mantas reduce the impact of your room, allowing you to hear more of the spaciousness and spatial cues from the actual recording rather than reflections from your own room. It doesn't sound like the artist is in your room, it sounds like you are in the room where the recording was made.
• Building on the previous point; While all speakers including the Manta benefit from a good acoustic space, the Mantas maintain the ability to sound good even in less than perfect rooms better than most speakers.
• Designed to present a rich, natural sound signature, giving special emphasis to the upper bass / lower midrange, where many speakers struggle.
• We spend huge amounts of time ensuring our speakers sound good across genres.
• Many speakers also struggle with complex material like rock for a number of reasons. Our speakers do not. You don't have to limit yourself to "hifi recordings", all music sound better with the Mantas.
• Sold as a speaker system together with preferrably dual subs, they provide true full range sound, typically extending to 16-18hz in-room

Some key points about the design:

• Dual, passive cardioid systems, the lower enclosure covering 100-600hz, the upper enclsoure covering 600hz up to where the cardioid dispersion merges naturally with the narrowing directivity of the tweeter. More on cardioid below.
• An extremely capable coax driver with high quality and high capacity. The midrange is modeled purposely to act as a waveguide for the tweeter.
• A twelve(!) inch high sensitivity, high capacity midbass driver covering 100-600hz.
• 600 Watts of Hypex amplification per speaker, with three individual channels powering each individual driver
• Zero distortion and extreme capacity, max SPL 122dB@1m per speaker.
• Designed to be paired with our subwoofers (preferrably two) for true full range reproduction. Both the speakers and the subwoofers are designed to merge perfectly as a 4-way system, no configuration or complicated setup necessary.
• The speakers are 360x600x350 mm (~14x24x14 inches), total height is 107cm / 42 inches on the included custom, one piece stainless steel stands.

What is cardioid, and why does it matter?
Traditional speakers radiate sound in all directions. This means less energy at the listening position and severe reflections from the walls. This leaves you with a distorted and inferior version of the original sound.

The unique enclosure of the MANTA has a cardioid radiation pattern over a wide frequency range. This means MANTA radiates most of the energy towards the listener. You hear the music directly from the source instead of reflected off your walls. This is part of what enables the incredible soundstage and immersive sound of the Mantas.

The graph below indicates the reduction in energy directed backwards (towards your front wall) compared to a traditional speaker:



Speaker system / Subwoofers
One of the reasons the Mantas have such an extreme capacity, is that it does not try to play deep bass. The 12" driver is a midbass driver, with a different suspension and significantly lighter cone than what you'd traditionally see in a full range speaker. The speaker crosses over to subwoofers at 100hz, and for those who worry - the integration is perfect. The sound is like that of massive, high-end floorstanders, only with even better and more coherent bass. The subwoofers can be connected directly from the speakers via XLR, so no special equipment or outputs is necessary from your preamp or source.

Frequency response & sound
The Mantas are designed to give a smooth, downwards sloping response in-room. The anechoic response is +/-2.5dB. Anechoically there's a slight rise in the midbass to account for the fact that this area is usually lean in most listening rooms due to reflections and cancellations. As evident in the graph, the speakers roll off hitting -6dB at around 80hz. This is by design as they are part of a speaker system where subwoofers will cover the lowest octaves.



That's it for now!
You can read even more details about the Mantas here: https://www.sigbergaudio.no/collections/all/products/sigberg-audio-manta-1-active-speakers

And I would also be more than happy to answer any and all questions!

 

[sigbergaudio]

In case it is not apparent, please also note that I am not a sales person, I am the actual designer and developer of all our products.

 

[cjf]

Hello,

I have looked thru your web page and documentation for the Manta but was unable to determine the answer to a question that came to mind.

If someone feeds the speaker an Analog XLR Output signal from an external DAC or Pre-Amp does that signal remain in the Analog Domain (From End to End) or do all Analog signals get converted to Digital just after the Input jack on the Manta? In other words, will an Analog signal fed into the speaker be subject to an additional series of A/D/A conversions?

Thank you in advance for any additional detail you can provide

 

[sigbergaudio]

Hello,

I have looked thru your web page and documentation for the Manta but was unable to determine the answer to a question that came to mind.

If someone feeds the speaker an Analog XLR Output signal from an external DAC or Pre-Amp does that signal remain in the Analog Domain (From End to End) or do all Analog signals get converted to Digital just after the Input jack on the Manta? In other words, will an Analog signal fed into the speaker be subject to an additional series of A/D/A conversions?

Thank you in advance for any additional detail you can provide

Hello @cjf and thank you for your interest. That is a relatively common question and concern. So there is bad news and good news.

The "bad" news is that the answer is no. Our speakers, as most active speakers, utilize digital crossovers, so the signal has to be converted into the digital domain to do this processing, and then back again before being fed to the internal power amplifiers.

The good news is that both the AD converter and the DA converter are very high quality AKM chips (AKM4454 and AKM5554), that are 100% transparent.

Please also note that "transparent" does not mean that any coloration present in the signal is removed, it means that no coloration is added. In other words, any sound signature from your source, existing DAC and/or preamp (be it a tube amp or whatever) will be preserved throughout this process. Essentially the signal degradation is less and efficiency is higher than with a traditional passive filter.

The SNR (Signal/Noise ratio) of the combined AD/DA process is 109dB.

I may also add that the inherent latency of the procssing is just 0.35ms, which to my knowledge is way lower than anything else on the market. This is also identical in our speakers and subs, which means there are zero latency issues in the system, or even when using our subwoofers with other speakers (often a potentail problem when adding aftermarket subs to an existing system, as some subs can have as much as 10-20ms of latency).

 

[sigbergaudio]

I may also add that our approach to crossovers is a traditional and conservative one (though in the digital domain), so we employ very low Q filters to avoid any ringing and phase issues, and the crossover between drivers are linear phase.

This is achieved with asymmetrical filters that start out as 1.order filters, and then increase roll-off one octave down, increasing to 3rd order. The effect of this is that you get the same phase linearity as a traditional 1.order filter, while getting better protection for the drivers.

 

[sigbergaudio]

A couple of pictures from a hifi show this fall, here you also see the custom Manta stands that are also included. They have a retro look to them, and tilt the speakers back 4 degrees. The middle picture also shows our SBS.1 speakers in white, illustrating the size difference between them.

 

[cjf]

Hello @cjf and thank you for your interest. That is a relatively common question and concern. So there is bad news and good news.

The "bad" news is that the answer is no. Our speakers, as most active speakers, utilize digital crossovers, so the signal has to be converted into the digital domain to do this processing, and then back again before being fed to the internal power amplifiers.

The good news is that both the AD converter and the DA converter are very high quality AKM chips (AKM4454 and AKM5554), that are 100% transparent.

Please also note that "transparent" does not mean that any coloration present in the signal is removed, it means that no coloration is added. In other words, any sound signature from your source, existing DAC and/or preamp (be it a tube amp or whatever) will be preserved throughout this process. Essentially the signal degradation is less and efficiency is higher than with a traditional passive filter.

The SNR (Signal/Noise ratio) of the combined AD/DA process is 109dB.

I may also add that the inherent latency of the procssing is just 0.35ms, which to my knowledge is way lower than anything else on the market. This is also identical in our speakers and subs, which means there are zero latency issues in the system, or even when using our subwoofers with other speakers (often a potentail problem when adding aftermarket subs to an existing system, as some subs can have as much as 10-20ms of latency).

Hello and thanks for your detailed reply. I appreciate it.

I'll admit that I did suspect your answer would mention that the Analog Input signal would be converted to D again.

There are very few "Active" speakers on the market these days that maintain the Analog signal at the speaker Input.
I imagine this is because many/most people don't want to deal with doing the DSP leg work via another external means, so I get it.

I'm always on the look out for new Actives that only amplify the Analog signal they are fed...and do nothing else. This is because I am one of those people who do do the DSP stuff upstream before the signal reaches the speaker so I tend to avoid units that will attempt to do yet another set of conversions that I personally do not want/need.

But with all that said, if I were starting over from scratch, I would be less concerned with the above mentioned items. It certainly simplifies the whole setup to only have to feed the speaker just a digital signal and call it a day.

The Manta is certainly a nice looking speaker as seen in your attached pics

 

[sigbergaudio]

Hello and thanks for your detailed reply. I appreciate it.

I'll admit that I did suspect your answer would mention that the Analog Input signal would be converted to D again.

There are very few "Active" speakers on the market these days that maintain the Analog signal at the speaker Input.
I imagine this is because many/most people don't want to deal with doing the DSP leg work via another external means, so I get it.

I'm always on the look out for new Actives that only amplify the Analog signal they are fed...and do nothing else. This is because I am one of those people who do do the DSP stuff upstream before the signal reaches the speaker so I tend to avoid units that will attempt to do yet another set of conversions that I personally do not want/need.

But with all that said, if I were starting over from scratch, I would be less concerned with the above mentioned items. It certainly simplifies the whole setup to only have to feed the speaker just a digital signal and call it a day.

The Manta is certainly a nice looking speaker as seen in your attached pics

With respect I would argue that this is based on a bit of a misunderstanding. The DSP in an active speaker IS the crossover of the speaker. I will hazard a guess that you have not removed the analog crossovers from your speakers and are doing that work yourself with DSP externally?

If not, you actually do need the DSP part of the active speaker, as that DSP is the crossover that ensures that the drivers in the speaker work together in the right way. In other words, the DSP does the same job as an analog crossover in a normal speaker. Just better, and more precise.

So the main reason why active speakers have DSP isn't to provide room calibration to the consumer. That is just an added bonus one may provide since the DSP is already present. The main role of the DSP is to enable a digital (and superior) crossover solution.

 

[duv]

May I ask why you're not using the 6.5" version of that coax driver?

 

[JackD201]

I love the concept and I bet your products rock Thor. It's a refreshing technical approach that should get more attention. Limiting the woofer sounds so counterintuitive but the benefits are very clear. I hope you do very, very well.

 

[sigbergaudio]

May I ask why you're not using the 6.5" version of that coax driver?

Well, our SBS.1 speaker came first, where we use 5.5" midbass accompanied with the same 5.5" coax that is also here in the Manta.

We could have switched to the 6.5" driver from the same series for the Manta, but did not for mainly two reasons:

1) The 5.5" driver is actually better behaved, and due to the fact that they haven't just stuffed a tweeter inside any old midrange driver, but actually spent time to model the midrange cone to behave as a very well functioning waveguide, the tweeter also has impressive capacity. The midrange then becomes the weakest link between the 12" midbass and the waveguided tweeter, and from that perspective it could have made sense to move up to the 6.5", but since it's crossed over so high (600hz), it isn't necessary. So in summary it is powerful enough and has better sonic performance than the 6.5".

2) From a logistical perspective, it is of course also practical to use the same driver across both speakers.

 

[sigbergaudio]

I love the concept and I bet your products rock Thor. It's a refreshing technical approach that should get more attention. Limiting the woofer sounds so counterintuitive but the benefits are very clear. I hope you do very, very well.

Thank you! It is actually interesting to note how many top-of-the-range systems (for instance the new Sonus faber) take the route of a system with subwoofer. The old Infinity/Genesis systems of the 90s with bass towers come to mind too. In those systems no one really reacts to this approach for some reason, perhaps because those systems are so insanely priced that one expects craziness.

But yes, as you say there are very clear benefits, and I think unless one thinks through the technical aspects, one may need to hear it to understand. The dynamic range and effortless delivery (even from our much smaller SBS.1 speakers) is pretty addicting. Being able to use dedicated and completely different drivers allows for a completely different approach to midbass/midrange.

As an example, the cone of the 12" midbass driver in the Manta only weighs about half of a typical 10" subwoofer/woofer. It can also take a ton of power and has 96dB sensitivity. Which translates to the crazy 122dB@1m max SPL (weighted pink noise). To follow the Mantas all the way, you need four(4) of our 10D dual 10" subs.




But this aspect of the dynamic range of our speakers makes it a bit difficult for me to choose which aspects to highlight. Because the Mantas especially (with the cardioid dispersion) have a phenomenal soundstage and immersive sound that means the experience of the high sound quality is very apparent. On the other hand, the concept with subs and dedicated midbass means they can play ridiculously loud without audible compression. So then it's suddenly about the fun factor and perhaps a different aspect of the hobby. They're like massive JBLs or Klipsch, but with way higher sound quality.

When we crank them up at hifishows people just start to laugh (while the walls and ceilings rattle), and are amazed by the fact that they still sound great (as opposed to piercing or harsh, which is what often happens if drivers start to compress and/or distort) even at 110dB @ listening position.

 

[cjf]

With respect I would argue that this is based on a bit of a misunderstanding. The DSP in an active speaker IS the crossover of the speaker. I will hazard a guess that you have not removed the analog crossovers from your speakers and are doing that work yourself with DSP externally?

If not, you actually do need the DSP part of the active speaker, as that DSP is the crossover that ensures that the drivers in the speaker work together in the right way. In other words, the DSP does the same job as an analog crossover in a normal speaker. Just better, and more precise.

So the main reason why active speakers have DSP isn't to provide room calibration to the consumer. That is just an added bonus one may provide since the DSP is already present. The main role of the DSP is to enable a digital (and superior) crossover solution.

Yes, you are correct, I am doing that DSP/Digital X-Over work using external software and utilizing the music servers processing power to crunch the numbers before it arrives at the ETH Input of my DAC.

I think a hurdle for some (Me included) when it comes to using Actives in their already established main system is the built-in AD/DA many Actives come with.

If building a new system from scratch today I wouldn't have an issue with letting an Active do all the hard work of serving as Amp and AD/DA in my system. The cost and space savings you gain by doing so are not insignificant.

If you've already invested heavily in external AD/DA components and like what they do/how they sound then I feel feeding that signal back thru another layer of AD/DA is not ideal. In addition, I'm not aware of any Active Speakers that will not Auto Down Sample a signal above 24/192. Most wont even go that high (usually they Down Sample to 24/96 or 24/48).

Sincere question here, given that you are the creator of the speaker in question I would be interested in knowing if the 24/192 limitation (or less) is because of the "AD" parts/components typically used within these type of speakers? I assume available real-estate within the speaker cabinet also plays a role in what you can do?

One last mention, I don't think we can always assume that whatever AD/DA parts/technologies are being used within an Active speaker that it will always be transparent enough to maintain all the character of upstream external DAC's. A case in point being, very high performing/measuring external DA's. As an extreme example, I haven't seen any high end DCS/MSB Stack owners filtering their pristine golden signal thru an Active speaker with built-in AD/DA's. We of course don't need to go that far up the food chain though to find an almost picture perfect measuring external DA. There are many.

With all that said though, and short of already owning a great sounding/measuring external DA, some may be doing themselves a favor by letting the AD/DA built within the Active speaker handle that work for them.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Yes, you are correct, I am doing that DSP/Digital X-Over work using external software and utilizing the music servers processing power to crunch the numbers before it arrives at the ETH Input of my DAC.

I think a hurdle for some (Me included) when it comes to using Actives in their already established main system is the built-in AD/DA many Actives come with.

If building a new system from scratch today I wouldn't have an issue with letting an Active do all the hard work of serving as Amp and AD/DA in my system. The cost and space savings you gain by doing so are not insignificant.

If you've already invested heavily in external AD/DA components and like what they do/how they sound then I feel feeding that signal back thru another layer of AD/DA is not ideal. In addition, I'm not aware of any Active Speakers that will not Auto Down Sample a signal above 24/192. Most wont even go that high (usually they Down Sample to 24/96 or 24/48).

Sincere question here, given that you are the creator of the speaker in question I would be interested in knowing if the 24/192 limitation (or less) is because of the "AD" parts/components typically used within these type of speakers? I assume available real-estate within the speaker cabinet also plays a role in what you can do?

One last mention, I don't think we can always assume that whatever AD/DA parts/technologies are being used within an Active speaker that it will always be transparent enough to maintain all the character of upstream external DAC's. A case in point being, very high performing/measuring external DA's. As an extreme example, I haven't seen any high end DCS/MSB Stack owners filtering their pristine golden signal thru an Active speaker with built-in AD/DA's. We of course don't need to go that far up the food chain though to find an almost picture perfect measuring external DA. There are many.

With all that said though, and short of already owning a great sounding/measuring external DA, some may be doing themselves a favor by letting the AD/DA built within the Active speaker handle that work for them.

First of all; Thank you for sharing your concern and reflections around all of this.

Second: For anyone else reading I would like to point out that these are all completely generic concerns for any active speaker - not anything specific to our design. If one can not get past these, active speakers is the wrong choice. But if one are considering actives, our systems are among the best actives out there with regards to all the mentioned aspects.

It's also important to consider the benefits. You get dedicated power amplifiers for each individual driver that is finely tuned to maximize the potential, and you get a cardioid dispersion pattern, ensuring that the improved accuracy at the listening position far outweighs the theoretical issues surrounding internal AD/DA conversion.

For those who are concerned that they will no longer be able to have fun with separate components and gadgets, my usual answer is that the easiest way to think of these is to think of them as speakers with built-in power amps. So if you have an existing system built up over time, you can throw out your power amplifiers, but everything else can stay the same. You can still have fancy and esoteric power cables, signal cables, tube preamplifiers, high-end sources, wifi routers, what have you.

 

[Solypsa]

Yes, you are correct, I am doing that DSP/Digital X-Over work using external software and utilizing the music servers processing power to crunch the numbers before it arrives at the ETH Input of my DAC.

If I read this right you are performing Xover function, and perhaps other dsp, within your digital server and so must have already a multi channel dac feeding multiple amps?

I think a hurdle for some (Me included) when it comes to using Actives in their already established main system is the built-in AD/DA many Actives come with.

If anything in an audio system is subject to the march of technology it is the digital part so I very much get this concern.


Despite being a vinyl guy I recognize the potential merits of digital crossovers and no longer feel dogmatic about the topic...

 

[cjf]

If I read this right you are performing Xover function, and perhaps other dsp, within your digital server and so must have already a multi channel dac feeding multiple amps?

If anything in an audio system is subject to the march of technology it is the digital part so I very much get this concern.


Despite being a vinyl guy I recognize the potential merits of digital crossovers and no longer feel dogmatic about the topic...

Hello,

Yes you are correct. I am using a Multi-Channel DAC (Merging HAPI) feeding Pass Labs Mono's for the main towers along with 3 powered Subs....Details in Sig if interested.

@sigbergaudio ...Hopefully you don't take my posts as an attempt at soiling on your product. That is not my intention. I hope you have great success with your products and you are correct of course that my comments are not specific to your product only. They apply to almost all Actives in a general sense.

Here is where I am coming from. Given that the initial post mentioned answering any and all questions I figured I would take this opportunity to ask a few questions about Actives to someone who has direct design/build experience with this technology.

A more specific question related to the Manta that comes to mind would be:

Would it have been possible to offer both options (ie..exclusive Analog Input End to End & Digital Input with AD/DA) within the Manta cabinet/footprint? I'm sure there is a reason why this option is never seen on Actives but that reason escapes me.

Some of the topics I brought up where ones that weighed heavily on my own mind before making a purchase of the Active speakers that I use today in my Office system (Analog Input Genelecs, no Digital Inputs). I have plans on purchasing another pair of Actives in the future so Active speakers in general is a topic that interests me.

At the time when I was in the market before purchasing my current Active speakers I remember becoming a bit frustrated to see the trend of almost all Actives that were available requiring the End User to give up their Analog signal at the Input of the speaker (remember this is an Audiophile themed forum so you will find many posts of people trying to preserve that Analog signal as much as possible).

One trend that I saw that was particularly annoying at the time was on speakers that had a physical XLR Input shown as "Analog" but then made no mention anywhere in the documentation that the Analog signal fed to it would be converted back to Digital again. I feel this should be mentioned somewhere in the documentation, preferably in Red Bold text for transparency sake..

In any case, coming from the perspective of a current owner of an Active speaker and also from the perspective of a future shopper for another pair of Actives I'll just say that it sure would be very cool to start seeing Active speakers come to market that offered both options (Real Analog & Digital Inputs).... assuming its possible/feasible.

Who knows, if this were an option some day it may knock down a few barriers in the Audiophile mind that today are stopping them from considering an Active speaker.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Hello,

Yes you are correct. I am using a Multi-Channel DAC (Merging HAPI) feeding Pass Labs Mono's for the main towers along with 3 powered Subs....Details in Sig if interested.

I took a peek at your system info, if I understand this correctly the crossovers in your main towers are still intact, and you are feeding your speakers a single signal (since each speaker is powered by a single mono amplifier). So from this perspective you are not doing crossover duty externally, save for separating the signal for the mains vs the subs.

In the Manta the analog crossover (still present in your speakers) is digital, sending a separate signal to three different mono amplifiers within each speaker. Each mono amplifier receives a different signal, and feeds a single driver.

@sigbergaudio ...Hopefully you don't take my posts as an attempt at soiling on your product. That is not my intention. I hope you have great success with your products and you are correct of course that my comments are not specific to your product only. They apply to almost all Actives in a general sense.

Were is where I am coming from. Given that the initial post mentioned answering any and all questions I figured I would take this opportunity to ask a few questions about Actives to someone who has direct design/build experience with this technology.

That is completely fine. We may need to agree to disagree on what is a concern or not, but it is perfectly fine to voice your worries. you are likely not the only one who are unsure about the pros and cons of active speakers.

A more specific question related to the Manta that comes to mind would be:

Would it have been possible to offer both options (ie..exclusive Analog Input End to End & Digital Input with AD/DA) within the Manta cabinet/footprint? I'm sure there is a reason why this option is never seen on Actives but that reason escapes me.

There is a quite simple reason: The analog path would be worse. It would have higher degradation of the signal, and it would allow for less precise adjustment of the signal. Both our current speakers as well as our upcoming Saranna have quite advanced asymmetric crossovers combining the linear phase of traditional 1.order crossovers with the driver protection enabled by higher order crossovers.

Many active speakers including ours also have other advanced features like automatic limiters protecting the drivers at high volumes.

We can also supress driver non-linearites out of band. Say if a midrange driver is crossed over at 2500khz, and have non-linearities at 5000hz or even 8000hz, this can still potentially be audible with a traditional crossover circuit. In a digital crossover we can dampen these non-linearities to ensure they stay in the inaudible range. And yes, even very high quality drivers have such non-linearities when you go far enough outside of their operating range.

From a development point of view it also allows me to provide a higher quality product in less time. The Manta has gone through probably a hundred iterations with regards to crossover design. A similar design process simply wouldn't have been possible with an analog crossover that has to be manually adjusted by soldering and replacing parts.

Some of the topics I brought up where ones that weighed heavily on my own mind before making a purchase of the Active speakers that I use today in my Office system (Analog Input Genelecs, no Digital Inputs). I have plans on purchasing another pair of Actives in the future so Active speakers in general is a topic that interests me.

At the time when I was in the market before purchasing my current Active speakers I remember becoming a bit frustrated to see the trend of almost all Actives that were available requiring the End User to give up their Analog signal at the Input of the speaker (remember this is an Audiophile themed forum so you will find many posts of people trying to preserve that Analog signal as much as possible).

One trend that I saw that was particularly annoying at the time was on speakers that had a physical XLR Input shown as "Analog" but then made no mention anywhere in the documentation that the Analog signal fed to it would be converted back to Digital again. I feel this should be mentioned somewhere in the documentation, preferably in Red Bold text for transparency sake..

I find it reasonable that manufacturers do not write something in red and bold that for many consumers will translate into "do not buy these speakers", especially since the reasoning of those consumers are (imo) misplaced.

Our specifications clearly state the speakers contain DSP (Digital Signal Processing), but I appreciate that not everyone will immediately understand what this means in practice.

That being said I understand the concern, because digital crossovers are very powerful. This means some manufacturers use all this power to force a very flat frequency response, at the expense of natural sound. They introduce artifacts, ringing, phase issues etc which can all be audible. We do not do that. Any adjustments are Q=1 or lower (very wide/broad and careful), avoiding any ringing and preserving phase linearity.

In any case, coming from the perspective of a current owner of an Active speaker and also from the perspective of a future shopper for another pair of Actives I'll just say that it sure would be very cool to start seeing Active speakers come to market that offered both options (Real Analog & Digital Inputs).... assuming its possible/feasible.

Who knows, if this were an option some day it may knock down a few barriers in the Audiophile mind that today are stopping them from considering an Active speaker.

Personally I think this is the wrong approach. What we need to do is help the audiophiles understand that the digital crossovers (done right) will be as good or better than an analog crossover.

 

[Solypsa]

@sigbergaudio In an ideal situation would you prefer to keep signals all digital before they arrive at your speakers? ( no DA in rest of system, and excluding weirdos like me that are mainly vinyl )?

Would you need / want to implement something along the lines of AES67 to do so practically?

 

[sigbergaudio]

@sigbergaudio In an ideal situation would you prefer to keep signals all digital before they arrive at your speakers? ( no DA in rest of system, and excluding weirdos like me that are mainly vinyl )?

Would you need / want to implement something along the lines of AES67 to do so practically?

I generally recommend to our customers that they use XLR. It has the lowest latency, it has very high quality, and it does not require customers to purchase anything new or change up their signal path. It also allows you to connect dual subwoofers directly (one to each speaker).

 

[Solypsa]

I generally recommend to our customers that they use XLR. It has the lowest latency, ...

I am quite sure I understand you, but perhaps for clarity as others read here, which are you referring to by "xlr":

AES3 digital
Or
AES48 analog*


*( ok over the years three pin analog has many names but used this one since it is a little more modern )