Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion What's New At Axiom LFR1100 Active

The best way to look at it would be the quality of the Sound Power curve. Whether it is Active, Passive, or omnidirectional will only matter in so far as it can aid in making a better Sound Power curve. The Directivity Index is essentially the inverse of the Sound Power so a good Sound Power means a good Directivity Index too. Unfortunately, Sound Power data is very difficult to get on loudspeakers as it is generally never measured, likely because you require an anechoic chamber to measure it and it is a lengthy process to measure and calculate. In the design process getting a linear on-axis and Listening Window is pretty straightforward. But getting a nice Sound Power as well is a lot of work.

Let's address the "active speaker," and why it's so good. The first active speakers I auditioned were powered Advents in 1979. They were astonishingly good, especially in contrast to their passive brother, the larger Advent.

If one reads a lot of higher end articles on speakers, one will find a lot of love for single driver, "crossover-less" speakers.

Removing the passive crossover removes a lot of components that color the sound.

The problem with the single driver speaker is they typically cannot handle an off axis response above 5000 Hz nor do bass below about 70 Hz.

With the active LFR-1100, all these compromises disappear. The 3 6.5 inch woofers get their own amp, as do both sets of 5.25 inch mids and both sets of tweeters.

The DSP will bandwidth control the response to each driver, which means, for example, a hard kick drum at 40 Hz won't tax the amp's ability to present the mid range material.

This delivers the best of all worlds - in fact - a pair of Active LFR-1100's, ADA-1500's to run them and a pair of EP800's would make for a state of the art speaker for well under $20,000.

Ian - something to consider - can you add a subwoofer out to the DSP box? You could tailor the crossover point to the best match with the 1100's. Perhaps even a choice of 30 Hz when run ported or 50 Hz when run sealed.

Uh-oh... now you've done it.

You are right - no overnight post from Ian. Can't you see it now? "Amie, that's IT, now they want a SUBWOOFER out on the DSP!!! We are out of here!"

LOL...c'mon Craig, we have all partied at their house, would anyone want to leave that behind???

It's not a house. It's Colquhoun Audio Labs!

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Have you been there Mojo? He has both...and a boathouse, errr...band house!

Sounds like quite the place. Unfortunately I have never had the pleasure. I have put myself up for adoption though. I'd make a good anechoic chamber slave.

Yeah...that place is really difficult to spend any amount of time inside...cool to view when Ian was giving us the a demo, but not easy to hang out inside!