This post is not about Odyssey Audio, which is surely a fine company. I'm talking bi-amping here.
Frankly, I think jreinhart has it right. This is just my opinion, based on personal listening experience and actual measurements. I realize that some of us do not like measurements, but I believe in the use of theory, engineering design, measurement, and listening - all of them.
I do my own measurements.
Our systems have many, many active devices inside them - tubes, transistors, FETS, even IC's. None of these active devices are perfect by themselves, out of the circuit, or when used non-optimally. The proper design and implementation of complex audio circuitry offers many opportunities for innovation - and yes, simplicity can be both innovative and desirable - but one goal always is to render theoretical nonlinearities irrelevant. So what if transistors et al are fundamentally non-linear over their entire operating region? Design the circuit so as to operate the active devices in their linear region, which can be made wide enough to encompass the entire audio spectrum - say, DC-150kHz. We can readily measure non-linearity. It is called harmonic distortion. We can measure dynamic range. We can't measure every parameter of "good sound", so we also listen.
I contend that design quality, not sheer number of components, will tell the tale every time.
I built a 3-way active crossover with the help of Dr. David White, of White Noise Audio. My RM-40's sounded very nice with their internal passive crossovers. They sound worlds better now. I get much, much more detail, a greatly expanded and better-defined soundstage, and the ability to easily and precisely change the levels with the use of 10-turn pots. I also can (though I have not done it) easily change the crossover frequency. Those with better ears than mine, and more time, could doubtless fine-tune further.
The improvement in my system was so distinct that I am never going back. I removed the passive crossovers from my speakers entirely, which brings me to my next point:
I do not understand everything, and one of those things that I do not understand is the appeal of "passive bi-amping". I think the whole point of bi-amping is to get rid of those huge, expensive, power-wasting, and phase-error-inducing capacitors and inductors in the speakers. A well-designed active crossover (which is not hard to do) is phase linear and does not introduce distortion artifacts into the signal. Passive components present all kinds of problems that are quickly eliminated by removing them and going directly amp-to-driver, one amp for each driver section.
OK, so the downside is that tri-amping a stereo requires 6 amplifiers. I found it to be worth it.
