[WallyWest]

My room is fairly small, if that matters.  Primarily used for home theater.  If I'm crossing the mains over to a subwoofer is there any real difference between the AV2 and AV3? 

My question for Danny is this.  In the next few months I want to put together a home theater package.  AV2's or 3's with the matching center, and two AV1's for the rear.  But I want to use an active crossover for the mains and center.  So would it be possible to work out a deal where I just buy the drivers for those speakers and get your advice on how best to setup the active crossover for them?  Or do you think that's a pointless endeavour?  I haven't bought the active crossover yet but I was leaning towards the Behringer Ultradrive pro. 

[Danny Richie]

If I'm crossing the mains over to a subwoofer is there any real difference between the AV2 and AV3? 

The A/V-2 is a 4 ohm speaker while the A/V-3 is an 8 ohm speaker. The A/V-3 will also play lower so you won't have to play the sub up as high. The lower you can cross it the better the integration. Plus the transmission line design of the A/V-3 keeps really good control of the woofers. The A/V-3's don't need speaker stands either.

But I want to use an active crossover for the mains and center.

I wouldn't. Most of those active crossovers don't allow for any baffle step loss correction. Some will not allow for time delays between drivers that are caused by physical driver offset. Then you need more amplifiers to boot. It just isn't worth it.

[WallyWest]

The A/V-2 is a 4 ohm speaker while the A/V-3 is an 8 ohm speaker. The A/V-3 will also play lower so you won't have to play the sub up as high. The lower you can cross it the better the integration. Plus the transmission line design of the A/V-3 keeps really good control of the woofers. The A/V-3's don't need speaker stands either.

A/V-3 it is then, I'm definitely a fan of keeping the crossover to the sub as low as possible. 

I wouldn't. Most of those active crossovers don't allow for any baffle step loss correction. Some will not allow for time delays between drivers that are caused by physical driver offset. Then you need more amplifiers to boot. It just isn't worth it.

Isn't there some pretty serious advantages in sound quality with active crossovers though?  Assuming your unit doesn't do baffle step correction you can just leave that part of the network passive, inline with the drivers.  Although that does somewhat defeat the purpose of going active.

I'd just heard that it was far superior to passive networks.  Although I'm sure it makes a bigger difference with larger, power hungry speakers that are hard to drive. 

[Danny Richie]

Isn't there some pretty serious advantages in sound quality with active crossovers though?

There can be. But just like a passive network, a good active network needs to be designed for the speakers that it is to be used with. Using an off the shelf active network is a little like using a textbook crossover. It disregards the acoustic response of the drivers.

Some of the new all digital crossovers do have adjustability to do anything though. Still you need an amp for each driver. 

[Blaine_M]

I built a pair of AV3 speakers over the winter and I really like mine.  I also built the AV3 center to go with, which you'll want to do if you are doing home theater.  I like to at least have the same tweeter on the front speakers.  The AV3 center is a sealed speaker so it will not go as low as the AV3 tower speakers.  So, with that in mind, unless you can set your crossover level on each speaker, for home theater you'll be setting your crossover point still to 80hz with the AV3 center and fronts.  That's what I do and it sounds great.  If you have a good subwoofer you might as well let it work below 80 hz.  Keep in mind that the crossover in your receiver is not a brick wall, there is a slope to that cutoff.  Do some reading  on Home Theater Forum and you'll find the general agreement by the pretty much everyone on there is to set the crossover to 80 hz regardless of what speakers can go down to.  The AV2's are very nice speakers as well, but as Danny says they are 4 ohm, you'd want a more stout amp to drive them.  I run my AV3's with a 90w Marantz and like I said, they sound great.  (I now have a larger sub than what's in this picture, picked up an SVS PB-12 NSD/v a couple of months ago)

[Blaine_M]

Hey something else you might want to consider if the room is small is a pair of AV1 speakers for fronts with an AV3 for a center.  We built that combination at the same time we did my AV3 speakers for a friend of mine, his sound very nice and I'd think would be an excellent option in a smaller room.