The great cd player con..........Your thoughts please!

OK my problem is hifi is away from speakers, 1 about 2m and the other about 4m, so is it bast to have hifi in centre of active speakers, other problem is power is not near the speakers but is near the hifi. I have also read that active speakers are sensitive to electric current and the reviews on the AVI site does say they sound much better after midnight. Power in my area is not great as mainly overhead wires, takes longer to charge things up etc.

Other thing that is said about Active is they are very revealing, not like Arcam which tends to be warmer sounding, would this be OK for old recordings, I have about 50 50s jazz cds, I don't want hear hiss etc.

There are plenty of people here that say the same thing about their non-active systems.

Eh?

Go ask on the HDD site.  I use actives and also listen to the Adms about twice a week (a mate has some), I have never noticed them being 'sensitive to electric current' or being much better after midnight.  The inputs are in one of the Adms, the other is a 'slave' that is connected to the 'master' by a single phono lead - which is supplied with the Adms.

Isn't the HDD site now the AVI site?

Yes.  Force of habit on my part.  Best place to go though if you want owners opinions on whether they'll suit your preferred music.

It's the gravity effect!  It takes longer for the electricity to get down to the sockets.

Chris

I have had activ speakers for years,all my bang&olufsen speakers are activ and sound good,but I have had linn activ systems also,but step up a range and passive sounds better than activ in the lower range.

For example I have top of the line linn klimax solo amps running my speakers passive,which sound alot better than when they were activ with akurate amps.

bottom of the range speakers being run activ will not sound as good as top of the range passive.

If one accepts that a transport can cause jitter (they certainly do and why else play on hard drive then) then different CD players with the same DAC can indeed sound different.

K, so what about a DAC that claims to eliminate incoming jitter (as most above £100 do)?

What then?

ReValveiT, as far as I know those external DACs that would eliminate/mitigate jitter would be equipped with asynchronous USB connections. But I was talking connecting a CD player through optical/co-axial (obviously). Undoubtedly there could be DACs that mitigate jitter through these as well. But the whole point of an external DAC for me is versatility i.e. connecting PCs, USB drives etc. If you're only using a single digital source, may as well get a good one with a good built-in DAC. And to the OP, I just don't see the point in getting a cheap DVD player as a transport, yes it will provide much better sound through a DAC, but why not hook up a PC instead? Also, what happens when that cheap DVD player packs up, get another one?? I have to assume he's not interested in movies or does not have a HD telly.

For my purposes I'd only consider an external DAC once I decide on PC playback, no scratch that, cos I if I'm going the pure digital route I want to choose music by remote control. A Sonos system would warrant an external DAC for improved quality. But other good quality streamers like current Pioneers, CAs, Marantz's? By how much will and external DAC improve their sound? Not by a degree that would warrant spending a few hundred quid I can bet on, since their built-in converters are already very good, and some of them can function as pure DACs with inputs as well.

It's still not clear which sources the OP will use, apart from the planned DVD player.

Well all shall now become clear.......Today after listening extensively to Rega,Kef,Neat combos I decided to break the mould...and I have ordered an AVI ADM9RS active speaker system...with the upgraded Scanspeak tweeters,which they are giving me as a free discount ( they usually cost £150 on top of the standard£1250 set up)

 I talked at length to the guys at AVI and also some retailers and they convinced me that seperates are dead and active not passive is the way forward. I hope I dont live to regret my somewhat rash desition...only time will tell,but Ashley at AVI said I can return the speakers within 30 days should I not like the sound. Its unobtrusive...(the room in which it will be used is fairly small so I dont need oodles of bass but if I find it lacking in Bass there is always the option of the dedicated subwoofer to add at a later date.) and if it sounds as good as I am lead to believe it will could be quite a steal. The price...even with the subwoofer is significantly less than the system I was looking at today, which were anything up to £3000.

Time will tell......but as for now I am excited about its arrival. Oh and by the way I probably will buy a dedicated CD transport,although the blu ray is a valid option to use if I dont.. I may also buy a sonus connect for the system although my heart is not really into digital downloads ...yet

Congratulations upon making the decision to jump to actives - I'd be highly surprised if you wind up regretting it.

Consider what one is trying to achieve with assembling/purchasing a HiFi setup - ostensibly, the closest approach to the original sound - the original tenet of HiFi.

Over the years, this has become very watered down by commercial interests and subjectivity in assessment of kit to the point where it has almost become the closest approach to the sound that suits you.

Hence we have a whole HiFi industry thus established that allows manufacturers, dealers and magazines to make a healthy living, whilst audiophiles fiddle and faff about with changing out gear, in an attempt to reach the holy grail of the perfect sound that suits them.

To a degree, everyones happy; the manufacturers, dealer chain and magazines make money, and the enthusiast is ever tinkering, and the wives/partners love it because it keeps the spouse/parnter happily contended at home.

However, this is not really the pursuit of HiFi per se, it's flavouring the sound to try and suit either yourself or a particular genre of music that you may listen to, at the exclusion of everything else.  In years gone past, this could be done by using a grahpic equaliser, or tone controls; nowadays, just change cables, or amps, speakers etc, etc.

There is no rocket science in audio, and usually a combination of intensive and thorough measurement, along with careful ABX blind testing (to remove the placebo effect, expectation biases and the psychological effects of sighted listening - all thoroughly researched and known) as and where necessary, will get you closer to that original tenet of HiFi than any random ad hoc mixing and matching at a retail/consumer  level could ever hope to achieve.

This is where actives really score.  

Instead of designing an amp which may be used with any number of speakers, or a speaker that may be used with any number of amplifiers, and leaving it up to the hapless audiophile to try and find a solicitous and happy match, usually at great expense, and often not achieved, even over decades, an active solution features amplfication and drivers fully matched and complimenting each other, by the designer at the outset.

From a purely practical real world POV, this in a stroke, removes all the mixing and matching and hoping for a 'better' result games of the Hifi industry merry go round.  Technically, there is also the advantage that removing the passive crossover eliminates considerable distortion and power losses, resulting in generally better resolution and transient response of the entire system. 

Disadvantages?

Some people are not so much interested in the best technical performance, or the closest approach to the original sound, so much as what pleases them re a particular sonic 'flavour', as mentioned.

 And for them, the non tinkering aspect of the active solution is a disadvantage, definitely.

Dealers won't like them in a retail sense, because it represents a closed sale with scant opportunity for further profits with add on accessories etc, and further repeat 'upgrading' sales.

But technically, from whichever way you assess it, all other things being equal re cabinet design and driver quality, active is superior to passive.

Certainly with the complete Naim system that I owned, and all bought new, I intended to go active with my Naim SBL's and would've if it hadn't been for the advent of AV which ultimately took me in a different system building direction.  It's worth remembering for the UK high end brands such as Linn and Naim, that fully active operation still sits at the top of their respective product trees - and for good reason IMHO.  

My SBL's in active mode are considerably better performing than in passive operation, albeit with the multi-amping/multi-cabling/multi-racking approach of Linn/Naim to active, it's a very expensive proposition, and one IMV bettered by todays solution with  fully active speaker with the amps internal in the actual speaker cabinet - built and tuned to be active from the outset rather than an expensive add on.

In my case, I've just made the jump finally, to actives, with a pair of brand new B&O Beolab 9's sitting in my lounge now for almost 3 weeks - and I'll never go back to a passive system again - the jump in performance and the freeing up of space in the room re being able to get rid of all the HiFi paraphernalia re racks, cables, etc is just too compelling to even contemplate doing otherwise!

Active is a system concept and technicaly superior way of system building that's been found in the pro world for many years; I'd argue that only the commercial interests of dealers, which is understandable I might add, has kept it out of the mainstream consumer HiFi world for so long.

But no-body is forcing you to ride the commercial HiFi industry merry go round of constant updates, searching for the 'perfect' system by trying out this and that in an ongoing cycle.  Active systems frees you from this, and from my POV, like the AVI owner, I could not be happier with my fully active B&O's - again easily the best HiFi purchase I've ever made on both performance and lifestyle considerations in the 40 odd years I've been involved in music and HiFi.

I hope my thoughts and experiences will be of some interest and/or assistance and look forward to hearing of your experiences in the world of actives when the AVI speakers arrive.

JMac

Thanks for that JMac.....nice to hear a bit of encouragement on here for a change.

I will post my thoughts and initial feelings regarding the system after I havw had a while.

Cheers again!

[EDITED BY MODS to clarify convoluted nested quotes]

Enjoy your new set-up, I'm sure it will sound great.

Me? I'm just going to carry on with my "dead" system.

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Congratulations on your new system, etymotic; it must feel great to have finally freed yourslef from pushy salespeople willing to tell you any old nonsense with no justification simply to part you from your money.