[srb]

Yes the connections are 3 fold from a normal speaker but speakers with built in amplifiers have too many performance compromises in my opinion.

What's interesting is some audiophiles who previously obsessed over isolating their external amplifiers from direct physical and airborne vibrations with heavy mass-loaded brass footers or highly engineered stainless steel and ceramic bearing assemblies, will then purchase active speakers with amplifiers inside the speaker enclosures.

Perhaps a simple set of rubber washers was all that was needed? 

Steve

[Armaegis]

Now we'd just need some 4-pole or 8-pole Speakon connectors on the gear to make plugging things in easier.

Yes the connections are 3 fold from a normal speaker but speakers with built in amplifiers have too many performance compromises in my opinion. 
Not to mention that I think some customers will prefer to use what they feel is their best amplifier choices per set of drivers. 

I think for some, the weight of speakers with built-in amps would be too much to handle as well.

[JLM]

Hi Jim

Yes the connections are 3 fold from a normal speaker but speakers with built in amplifiers have too many performance compromises in my opinion. 

Not to mention that I think some customers will prefer to use what they feel is their best amplifier choices per set of drivers. 

All I can tell you is once you experience what a great Active system can do its tough to go back.

james

Yes, as an owner of single driver speakers and active 2-way monitors I know the advantages of active design quite well.  But less "wireful" options exist.  The APS Coax for instance is a 2-way with the crossover/amps built into a separate compartment of each speaker cabinet.  Or perhaps better yet, the Munro Sonic Egg 150 which uses a separate cabinet for both sets of crossovers/amps and connect to the speakers using a single Speakon cable to each speaker cabinet.  Following this scheme you'd have an actual active speaker pair.

BTW my moniker is JLM (my initials) and my name is not Jim.

[James Tanner]

Yes, as an owner of single driver speakers and active 2-way monitors I know the advantages of active design quite well.  But less "wireful" options exist.  The APS Coax for instance is a 2-way with the crossover/amps built into a separate compartment of each speaker cabinet.  Or perhaps better yet, the Munro Sonic Egg 150 which uses a separate cabinet for both sets of crossovers/amps and connect to the speakers using a single Speakon cable to each speaker cabinet.  Following this scheme you'd have an actual active speaker pair.

BTW my moniker is JLM (my initials) and my name is not Jim.

Hi ?

Yes thanks I am aware of the different types of connectors but my experience when we distributed PMC Active speakers was that consumer audio customers will not accept those type of connectors. With the Pro market they were fine but rejected outright by the consumer market.

james

[James Tanner]

harmonica2

I went on Saturday to the L.A Show.  Unfortunately, I couldn't stay very long. 

Nicest surprise for me was the Bryston room.  Sounded great and they brought a nice library of music to test things out.

[JLM]

Hi ?

Yes thanks I am aware of the different types of connectors but my experience when we distributed PMC Active speakers was that consumer audio customers will not accept those type of connectors. With the Pro market they were fine but rejected outright by the consumer market.

james

The Speakon example I mentioned in contained within the speaker system, so only the need for custom length cables might be a challenge to consumers.  And BTW you can find interconnects with RCA on one end and XLR/TRS on the other if that is a concern.  Too bad that there is such resistance in the home to anything professional.  Hopefully your "active ready" approach can win over more home audiophiles. 

[James Tanner]

BRYSTON:

Complete BLISS !

Please do yourself a favour and come and listen to this setup in LA this weekend.

Carlos Warlick
Carlos is a multi-platinum recording engineer with recording & mixing credits to over 50 million record sales.

[James Tanner]

Front panel insert for the new 24B amplifier for the Bryston Middle T Active speaker

[James Tanner]

Hi James,

The Active Middle T’s are amazing!!
 
Best Regards,

Jerry Willsie
Straight Wire
 

[Testsystems]

James

What power amp solution are you considering for the full size signature T ? Curious. 

Will you be adding a provision to the 120 Hz and below user defined EQ to allow for a pair of Bryston Subwoofers?  For the all out system!

Drew Wilson

[James Tanner]

James

What power amp solution are you considering for the full size signature T ? Curious. 

Will you be adding a provision to the 120 Hz and below user defined EQ to allow for a pair of Bryston Subwoofers?  For the all out system!

Drew Wilson

Hi Drew

I would say the 7B's on the woofers and the 4B or 3B on the mid/tweet.  I have one dealer that has 28B's on the woofers and 4B's on the mid/tweets.

We are planing on introducing a 12 inch and an 8 inch sub with a GUI but the Model T goes flat to 25 so in most cases a sub is not required unless maybe for a .1 channel in surround setups..

james

[James Tanner]

MEMO: To All Bryston Customers
SUBJECT:  Bryston Middle T Active … Turns Pro

June 2017

Hi Folks,

I am pleased to announce that Peter Moore of ERoom Mastering has purchased our Bryston ‘Middle T ACTIVE Speakers and BAX-1 Digital Crossover’ for his Mastering Studio.



Peter Moore is a Canadian music producer who was first recognized for his innovative recordings of the Cowboy Junkies, produced on a shoestring budget.

Nominations: Juno Award for Recording Engineer of the Year, Grammy Award for Best Historical Album, Genie Award for Best Achievement in Music - Original Song

Movies: Hard Core Logo 2





Peter’s credits include:

Neil Young, Garth Hudson, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall, Neko Case, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, Finger Eleven, Sloan, and hundreds of others.

He has Won 2 Genie's, won 2 Gemini's. Nominated twice for a Juno."

[R. Daneel]

Hi!

Just to clarity, does this active crossover take a digital signal directly or does it take an analog signal and converts it to digital for processing?

Cheers!
Antun

[James Tanner]

Hi!

Just to clarity, does this active crossover take a digital signal directly or does it take an analog signal and converts it to digital for processing?

Cheers!
Antun

Hi

Analog in - digital processing - analog out.

james

[R. Daneel]

Hi

Analog in - digital processing - analog out.

james

Thanks James!

Okay, so what is the quality of the A/D and D/A conversion? I sort of have a problem with these types of DSP-based crossovers. While it is true they are way superior in flexibility to analog ones, using them means every source signal before the crossover is inevitably converted to digital. This diminishes the impact of quality source components, especially analog ones, on sound quality.

For example, if you own a pristine condition LP or R2R tape made through an entirely analog process, with a DSP-based crossover before the speakers this signal would first be converted to digital and then back to analog. While modern-day ADCs and DACs have reached their zenith, something will always be lost. What is the point in keeping these analog mediums if they're converted to digital every time you play them?

On the other hand, if you own a DSD-capable DAC and then run it's analog outputs into a DSP-based crossover, the DSD argument becomes irrelevant because no doubt, the crossover operates in PCM. More than that actially, DSP-based crossovers utilise SRCs (sample-rate converters) which set the sampling rate to whatever frequency is required by the software within the DSP. It is usually 96 kHz. Even if we are not talking about DSD, high-end PCM-only DACs become a component that is a lot less important when a digital crossover is thrown in the mix.

One might argue that a properly set-up DSP crossover yields benefits greater than what a good high-end DAC would, or other source components for that matter, but that being the case, you could easily do without all of these components then - run your PC or a BDP straight into the crossover and you're done. You'd be eliminating one cycle of D/A and A/D conversion that way.

It is just how I feel about it.

Cheers!
Antun

[James Tanner]

Thanks James!

Okay, so what is the quality of the A/D and D/A conversion? I sort of have a problem with these types of DSP-based crossovers. While it is true they are way superior in flexibility to analog ones, using them means every source signal before the crossover is inevitably converted to digital. This diminishes the impact of quality source components, especially analog ones, on sound quality.

For example, if you own a pristine condition LP or R2R tape made through an entirely analog process, with a DSP-based crossover before the speakers this signal would first be converted to digital and then back to analog. While modern-day ADCs and DACs have reached their zenith, something will always be lost. What is the point in keeping these analog mediums if they're converted to digital every time you play them?

On the other hand, if you own a DSD-capable DAC and then run it's analog outputs into a DSP-based crossover, the DSD argument becomes irrelevant because no doubt, the crossover operates in PCM. More than that actially, DSP-based crossovers utilise SRCs (sample-rate converters) which set the sampling rate to whatever frequency is required by the software within the DSP. It is usually 96 kHz. Even if we are not talking about DSD, high-end PCM-only DACs become a component that is a lot less important when a digital crossover is thrown in the mix.

One might argue that a properly set-up DSP crossover yields benefits greater than what a good high-end DAC would, or other source components for that matter, but that being the case, you could easily do without all of these components then - run your PC or a BDP straight into the crossover and you're done. You'd be eliminating one cycle of D/A and A/D conversion that way.

It is just how I feel about it.

Cheers!
Antun

Hi Antun

We use the same DAC's as we use in the BDA-3 DAC and the CD Player - AKM.

You are correct that a digital crossover offers a lot more flexibility than analog crossovers (we make an analog crossover called the 10B) and Digital crossovers allow us to deal with the Sound Power and Listening window as separate adjustments so it has huge advantages over analog versions.

Also my feeling is that the benefits of using a sophisticated digital crossover and making the speaker Active far outweighs any debate about the superiority or not of one type of crossover vs another.

james

[NavyDoc]

In the digital age we really need a consumer level preamp that has a volume controlled digital AES/EBU output.  There are a few pro products that do exactly this (Grace Design 805, Lynx Hilo, etc). When using active monitors it avoids extra DA-AD-DA steps.  I would be thrilled if the BAX would accept a digital input signal.  For my current system I am seriously considering the Grace Design monitor controller, it's a pretty cool piece of gear.

I am planning a simple all digital system. I love analog but for me it's not worth the cost/hassle. Of course, for others this is not the case.

[R. Daneel]

Hi Antun

We use the same DAC's as we use in the BDA-3 DAC and the CD Player - AKM.

You are correct that a digital crossover offers a lot more flexibility than analog crossovers (we make an analog crossover called the 10B) and Digital crossovers allow us to deal with the Sound Power and Listening window as separate adjustments so it has huge advantages over analog versions.

Also my feeling is that the benefits of using a sophisticated digital crossover and making the speaker Active far outweighs any debate about the superiority or not of one type of crossover vs another.

james

Hi James!

I agree with you completely!

My experience has always been that only expensive active systems have potential advantages over passive ones. Imagine this digital "chain":

BDP -> DSP crossover -> three BDAs -> three power amplifiers -> three-way loudspeakers

This would keep the signal completely in digital domain. The cost? To most people, very high.

I remember reading an article by Tom Headley, an acoustic engineer who designed the Kinoshita monitor systems for BOP studios in South Africa (possibly the most amazing studio complex in the world), and his opinion was that passive systems can reach 90% the quality of active systems but at a significantly lower price. He underlined the word "significantly".

Perhaps a unified component that would include a six or even eight channels of D/A conversions from your BDA machines along with an integrated DSP and volume control would be a most desirable product.

If you remember, we talked about this a year or two ago when you throught about making a 2-channel version of the SP3 processor. I vividly recall you saying "would like to add a digital crossover if I may have my way"!

Cheers!
Antun

[James Tanner]

Yes our next preamp will have a plug in digital module to do the Active section of our speakers.

james

[R. Daneel]

Yes our next preamp will have a plug in digital module to do the Active section of our speakers.

james

Oh wow! So, it would basically be a DAC/preamp with crossover function? Would you still keep the BDA and BP lines or would this product squeeze them out considering it combines both of them in a single product?

Cheers!
Antun