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Other brands of good quality active crossover boxes are Xilica, BSS Audio, Rane, Bryston, Marchand, dbx. Xilica might be the best available now, but the BSS has some unique filters that sound excellent. The best electronic crossovers will use a DSP engine to apply FIR filters, which do not introduce phase distortion to the processed signal like DEQX, BSS, Xilica, as do all other types of crossover processors whether digital (with IIR filters,) like Rane, Behringer and analog crossovers like Bryston and Marchand. DEQX is extremely powerful, and extremely good sound quality. But it takes some practice to achieve the full potential. It is easy to get frustrated with the early results and the steep learning curve. Don't judge it after only a short audition, or ask a DEQX support rep. for help. Behringer has an excellent DSP chip and good programming, making it easy to program and fine tune speakers. The price makes it by far the most popular electronic crossover on the market. But it has a generally low quality construction, parts quality, and poor reliability. The stock unit has mediocre sound compared to audiophile standards due to the overly complex output stage (needed for pro audio use) which is full of low quality parts. It's a good starter unit, but plan to upgrade within a year if it lasts that long. I have not used miniDSP, another low cost popular active crossover product. But I have read comments from users that warn about the mediocre sound quality, by audiophile standards. There are a bunch of miniDSP users here on AC, hopefully they can chime in with their experience.I've had experience with DCX, DEQX, Rane, Xilica, as well as PC based digital crossovers as plugins and AudioLense. I've built analog active crossovers based on Elliott Sound Products plans, they are cheap and sound very good, if you already know what freq you need. Have fun!!
The best active X-over in my bi-amped 4 box system (top cabs use passive X-overs) is to not use any active X-over at all in the mains/top 2 cabinets, even with my $3000 active crossover. I get the most detail and best sound by just using the active X-over for my bottom/bass cabs and take the mains right out of my preamp into the main power amp bi-passing the active X-over all together. Two sets of preamp outputs are needed to do this. If my top 2 cabinets didn’t use passive crossovers than I’d have no choice but to pass the full signal thru the active crossover. In that case I’d probably be looking at a Pass Labs or FirstWatt unit if I had the cash. Since I’m only using the active X-over for my bottom cabs the cheap Rane AC-22S works great for me these days and is adjustable right up front. I'm sure your going to love the DCX2496 and deqx hdp-3 units. The deqx units are new to me but It seems like more and more folks are using them.
