The Tukans are TRANSFORMED entirely when taken active. Passively driven by anything less than a 500 they have a somewhat light spectral balance and lose a great amount of pace and airiness at the upper end. Activating them by even an IXO is a staggering improvement and the sound bears absolutely no resemblance to what they sound like in their passive state (again, this does NOT include the 500 driven tukans). Even when maxed out with a Snaxo/Supercap/4x135, or single NAP500 the limitations eventually are the speaker itself and as such the more heroic permutations do not offer exceptional value for money. I would say that there is a much larger improvement by going from passive to an IXO-driven active state, than there is between the IXO and a supercapped-Snaxo. And to my ears the difference between passive and active is a fair bit greater than that between a 180 and a 250. You may wish to consider taking your lesser power amp up to an 180 and getting an IXO rather than trying to activate them with different amps and a Snaxo.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

http://homepages.go.com/~rontoolsie/index1.html

[This message was edited by Ron Toolsie on MONDAY 18 December 2000 at 12:56.]

naheed...

quote:

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Thank you very much for your answer,now I know which way to go.
I will try to find a 180 close to the serial number of my 180 and then go active.

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The Tukans are good enough speakers to show some pretty dramatic improvements when running them in the 'stripped down' active configuration. Their crossover design makes it fairly easy for them to be swapped back and forth between active and passive, by simply moving a pair of wires from one place on the crossover to another. But the price of this convenience is that when they are configured for active use the signal still goes from the binding posts to the crossover, then along a few PCB solder traces on the crossover (but bypassing the components on the crossover) and then out from the crossover to the individual drivers.

Now, if you were to rewire the speaker by removing the crossover and taking the upper pair of binding posts directly to the tweeter, and the lower pair to the directly midbass unit, this allows the Tukans to improve considerably on their dynamics, purity and sheer boogie. Strongly recommended. See if you can bribe your dealer into doing it if you are not comfortable wielding a soldering iron.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

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