I friend of mine swears by active in his home theatre system, owing to speed etc. He is using active ATC speakers, but it made me wonder about an active Naim system. How many boxes would you end up with? Conceivably, a 5 speaker set of 3-ways could have 15 amp boxes plus goodness knows how many for crossovers, PSs etc. Would it really make a difference?

Start first with the basics–most Naim speakers, from the ALLAE on up, can be driven either passively or actively. Once sorted in terms of position, volume trims, etc. etc., then one can consider the relative performance gains in going active.

In most cases, if your surround listening will primarily be DVD movie soundtracks, the advantages of active surrounds may be less (bandwidth-limited, data-compressed Dolby Digital and DTS) than, say, the gains brought on by an active center channel for dialogue (wish this was possible within the Naim speaker hierarchy), and, especially, the front channels (for general stereo listening).

In some rooms, a discrete center may not be required, which makes it quite easy to entertain active fronts and surrounds.

quote:

(wish this was possible within the Naim speaker hierarchy)

It is if you use a single SBL like I did

I fully agree with Jonathan´s friend. Active is a great step forward for stereo, but the improvement is even bigger for surround. When watching movies dynamics, directness and impulsiveness are the most important qualities... and that´s exactly what active adds by eliminating the slowing passive crossovers.

My system is not 100 perc active, but I´m using 10 channels. 2*3 front + 2*center and 2 surround. Using the offers of a well known Scottish supplier, you only need 3 electronical boxes for this... you even can activate the rears with 3 boxes.

I recently had to go back passive temporarily, because a spider killed one amp... I would never do this intentionally, the difference is just too big.

brgds...TC