Listening Test Passive vs Active on Speaker No.1416

[@sjhorton1184]

Troy, may I call you Troy? This is one of the best sounding speaker test sound clips I have heard on YT to date, and I heard quite a few. Simply Devine. Such a shame I'm not filthy rich or you would have another order for these already. Going to open a second TY instance of this so I can rapidly switch to see if I can hear a difference or not. Love what you are doing, keep up the great work. Love the design for both the vintage aesthetic as well as the modern touches and how creatively you solved the Active/Passive dilemma. Bravo! OK, did my test and I wouldn't have believed it is I hadn't heard it myself first hand, but there is just the slightest bit more ambience in the passive. I can hear more of the acoustic space so there is actually MORE detail using the passive crossover. Wow. I prefer the passive. It is REALLY close though and I'd be tickled with either one. Do you think that maybe the FA501 is just a better amp and that is the difference? Thanks again.

[@gavaets13]

Passive sounds more realistic. Beautiful job!

[@dl6519]

Is it my imagination, or is the passive a little bit louder? My preference is for the passive, but the difference is subtle, as if it's a fraction of a decibel louder. Love your creativity!

[@donquixote4630]

It appears I belong here to a minority that prefers the active setup and I wonder what would be the individual responses if : 1. The active was the first one sampled, and 2. If the labels - "active" and "passive" were in fact misrepresented Most excellent work, bravo !

[@m.ionescu3455]

Both sound amazing to me, with the first one more forward, like the singer was in the room, and the second one more integrated. Great thing that you may switch modes. Beautiful work!

[@fabieneldridge3414]

Passive , just sounded Realistic! Could you imagine a pair of those ! Wow

[@ericlofroos2405]

The first one, passive was my favorite. You have an incredible gift. I absolutely love your work. I’m definitely going to reach out to you when I purchase my next system. Thanks for sharing!

[@JosephCrowesDIYSpeakerBuilding]

Thank you!

[@interesting7906]

I prefer the passive, much more musical. Active sounds like active system often sound to me: very inorganic and flat. Amazing speakers overall!

[@roccobruno8027]

Another beautiful design and build. I love the idea of running the speaker in either active or passive as a lot of audio people want to use their own amplifier.

[@hardystein114]

Congratulations Joseph , great achievement .Superb sounding speaker.

[@jked7463]

Love the look of it. Beautiful design.

[@TDA-AUDIO]

Only dsp, only triamp, only progress!) great job!

[@ABC-rh7zc]

Would be great to switch between the two videos to hear instant changes

[@user-od9iz9cv1w]

Thanks for the sound clip. I enjoy hearing different speakers and set ups. (within the constraints of KZbin) I find the two very similar. I had a slight preference for the passive, but I have a bias in that direction. I felt it was slightly more realistic.

[@simoningram1114]

Me too, passive was ‘better’, more organic to my ears

[@matt12v2]

Very interesting maybe I should rethink my active setup lol thanks for sharing

[@CABohol]

Sounds great! 🎚🔊

[@asadabbasmirza9519]

Super craftsmanship

[@marcoterbekke]

yes, same here: preferred the passive mode. Gotta be honest: expected this to be the active mode..... ;-)

[@fabieneldridge3414]

Those are Beautiful ! Super Job ! 👍🇺🇸

[@wellroundedsound2422]

Sounds great!!! Not much of a difference between the two. The active sounds bit more forward with bit more bass. It would be interesting to compare both in proper stereo set up to see the effect on the soundstage and imaging.

[@mattwellein1829]

Great video, Uncle Troy! Those speakers look familiar! 😁

[@Alkatross]

It does sound different, but I'm not sure I could tell in a blind test. The passive sounds less detailed. It also sounds more glued together, as though it was coming through a single full range driver. The active lets you hear the individual drivers, which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing. It might be that the active was a little louder.

[@azzolinaaudio5011]

I go back to the Naim Audio days and agree with their ethic of using identical amplifiers for active application in all frequency bands. No matter how much I bucked this the proof was consistently in the listening and they were right. Personally I prefer passive line level crossovers but the inductors (as well as other elements) need to be varied with the empirical process and this is spendy and inconvenient...

[@rickg8015]

Impressive in both cases.. But you really can’t hear much difference between the two Hypex amps.. And it seems you used high quality XO parts for the passive too.. Maybe in actual live listening the passive is less dry sounding and has more air..?

[@user-od9iz9cv1w]

I felt the same. I think with a stereo playback we could better hear the nuances of space and air which is where I think the differences might be. Another of my biases is we also would need to see an actual tube amp to bring out the best of these. A plate amp is IMHO a filter removing micro details. Great for bass or subs but not my cup of tea for mids and highs. Again my bias speaking as I run 110w triode mono OTLs.

[@jked7463]

Sounds like the the biamp is clearer most likely due to time alignment. When I did commercial audio design, I would time align the typical dual 15"/horn passive box using an open architecture digital box and get the same improvements in clarity.

[@bartvanransbeeck1341]

Difficult to hear difference, both great integrated sound....top

[@jked7463]

Looks like an am58 which has its own character. Large difference in bass depending distance (coupling) to source. Also not the most speedy of mics but compliments voices.

[@craigmoore1194]

Wow, beautiful!!!!

[@cdgee6399]

When you switched to Active, you took something away from me. A tactic we used to use in HiFi sales in the 80 - 90s 😂 Passive sounds more lifelike.

[@CUSTOMWORKS7.3PSD]

I don't know what to say !!!! HOLY SH?T WOW

[@I.am.KubKab]

The second produced more room, the first one a more flat earth atmosphere. The first one seems to sound a bit more realistic Both versions sound fantastic. What’s the better? Difficult to say. It depends probably strongly on the recording. And of course it’s just a YT video. And hang on, if you have the possibility to switch between active and passive to adjust the sound to your personal likings, that‘s a great opportunity. Would be interesting to hear it with more complex music

[@TheRealAudioDidact]

Passive all the way from me! What is the MSRP of this speaker?

[@michaelcorlet2998]

Definite diff in inflection of voice. can i say more rasp in act crossover.prefer assive.thanks.

[@ahnenpost5237]

The second one (active) to me sounds more clear, calm, free

[@philippecharron5276]

Did you time align the drivers in the active setup?

[@JosephCrowesDIYSpeakerBuilding]

There was no need to time align via DSP. The step response is perfect.

[@antoniojoseandreomartinez9710]

Like, like, like.

[@gregd6022]

You can't make such a generalization as "Passive vs Active", esp that Hypax, it's really just a comparison of your two cross overs (amps too). In the general case, given the same amps, an active x-over can be setup to sound identical to the passive (would not pass a double blind A/B test).

[@JosephCrowesDIYSpeakerBuilding]

The title of the video says “…on speaker No.1416”, if I had simply said “passive vs active” then I could understand how a generalization could be implied.

[@jeantrivelly]

Can you tell us what is the song ?

[@59seank]

Gregory Alan Isakov - San Luis kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXOtaIB6hNJ_hqc There's a Spotify link in this videos description -- I don't have Spotify so I included the KZbin link.

[@jeantrivelly]

@@59seank Great Thanks !

[@59seank]

@@jeantrivelly You're welcome Jean. Happy listening!

[@wellroundedsound2422]

Have you heard of Shazam mate? If not download it to your phone (if you have one) and it is pretty accurate to find most music. Cheers!

[@freeradical6390]

What do you charge for a work of art like that?

[@JosephCrowesDIYSpeakerBuilding]

You can contact me at [e-mail]

[@n.lyndley.9889]

There is no electro-acoustic reason why any passive crossover would sound superior to a well-engineered active system.

[@Carlos-269]

Passive sounded better to me as it sounded more detailed and tangible.

[@goranvuk8501]

passive

[@VitalYFZ]

Passive sounds much smoother, less clinical.

[@davehardan8323]

Active sounded dull & less real.

[@shining31]

Active VS passives ?; câbles management for each ways? Sound check on KZbin? come on.... You can do better than that, this is not a Darko like channel....

[@porkchopspapi5757]

Maybe he should come to everyone's home.