What's best when it comes to speakers ?

[Corabar Steve]

When people say active speakers, as opposed to passive, does that mean that they've got built in amps?

yes

No

That is covered in this thread. I hope.

http://www.forum.mobilediscodirector...ad.php?t=36878

Indeed it is

[funkymook]

It's impossible to say without knowing more about what you want....

What's best for a club with 600 people is going to be different to what's best for a village hall with 80 people.

What's best if you have several roadies and a large van is different to what's best if you have an estate car and work solo.

What's best for playing dubstep at an 18th is different to what's best for playing easy listening at a dinner dance.

What's best if you have £12k is different to what's best if you have £750

etc etc etc.

A bit more relevant information from you and you'll get a bit more relevant information back

[Matty12]

That is covered in this thread. I hope.

http://www.forum.mobilediscodirector...ad.php?t=36878

[paulg]

Chris, they both sound more or less the same - any reasonable quality kit with amps more than large enough to produce the volumes you want will be OK.

Actives, especially where you use the recommended top with the recommended sub are best described as plug and play. The manufacturer has selected the best amp and speaker configuration for the uses they recommend for the system. With very little knowledge of PA systems just about anyone can figure out how to stick an output from a mixer into the back of each sub, link that to the tops, plug in the mains, tweek the mixing desk and create a very reasonable sound system. Most of them have internal crossovers and electronics to do the most of the job of a sound man for you. HK audio are a good example. I've personally never come across any other systems that you can simply plug and play and get such consistent sound.

Passives are more flexible and more complicated in that you can vary the external amp size, crossover, and control electronics i.e. it's up to you to match amps, speakers and control electronics together. I take my hat off to some of the guys whose knowledge of passive systems is encyclopedic!

Because you can have better control (and assuming you learn how to do it), you'll get slightly better performance from a passive system in terms of watts vs output. If you go in this direction, talk to someone at length who uses and really understands passive systems.

Personally, I use an active system. For me it's the ease of use that appeals.

[Corabar Steve]

Actives, especially where you use the recommended top with the recommended sub are best described as plug and play. The manufacturer has selected the best amp and speaker configuration for the uses they recommend for the system. With very little knowledge of PA systems just about anyone can figure out how to stick an output from a mixer into the back of each sub, link that to the tops, plug in the mains, tweek the mixing desk and create a very reasonable sound system. Most of them have internal crossovers and electronics to do the most of the job of a sound man for you. HK audio are a good example. I've personally never come across any other systems that you can simply plug and play and get such consistent sound.

Not if they're un-powered actives

Passives are more flexible and more complicated in that you can vary the external amp size

Not if they're powered passives.

[Chris]

Many thanks for all the info. I imagine that generally speaking, everything else being equal, you would get a better sound with speakers that have built-in amps and own power, than speakers with built-in amps, with no power?

[funkymook]

Many thanks for all the info. I imagine that generally speaking, everything else being equal, you would get a better sound with speakers that have built-in amps and own power, than speakers with built-in amps, with no power?

I think you'd be right to say that!

[Matty12]

Many thanks for all the info. I imagine that generally speaking, everything else being equal, you would get a better sound with speakers that have built-in amps and own power, than speakers with built-in amps, with no power?

what? what does that mean?

what? what does that mean?

Sorry I went through the websites again so, are you saying you would get a better sound from an active speaker?

[Corabar Steve]

Ever felt like you're going round in circles?

Many thanks for all the info. I imagine that generally speaking, everything else being equal, you would get a better sound with speakers that have built-in amps and own power, than speakers with built-in amps, with no power?

Probably.








On account of the fact that if they have an inbuilt amp & there is no power they won't work

























Amps as a rule (regardless of whether they are in a speaker cabinet or their own casing) need some form of power to operate

[WWDJ]

So to summarise, semantics of active and passive aside (I think generally, aside from a few exceptions active is a powered cab with an amp in the back and passive gets fed by an external amplifier) ....

... Neither has the edge on sound specifically, but an active speaker is easier to get good sound out of because amp and speaker matching has been done for you.

So how much do you want to spend ?