[CornellAlum]

So, I am dicking around at work today, and stumble somehow on the topic of active crossovers.  After doing quite a bit of reading, and having just done some work on a passive network, it generated some curiosity for me.  What I couldn't figure out was this.  If you have say, a traditional set of speakers, with two/four binding posts, how does a active crossover split the signal three ways?  Wouldn't one need to have the drivers connected to three sets of binding posts in a traditional three driver speaker?  If so, would you remove the passive network, rewire to three sets of binding posts, then set the crossovers in the digital domain?  As I said, I am just curious and know nothing about this stuff.

D~

[JoshK]

yes, in an all active 3-way you will need 3 sets of binding posts, or as I used, an 8-pole speakon connector works just fine.  

Just to give you a little more to chew on, consider than a good passive crossover does more than simply determining crossover point and slope, so an active crossover will have to do more as well.

[CornellAlum]

One other question, it appears to do this, a person would need THREE amps, is this accurate?  That would seem to be a pretty darned exspensive option imnsho.

[ctviggen]

Yes, it is expensive and would require one amp per "channel" (i.e., driver, although some speakers have multiple drivers for the same frequency range) of the speaker.   The benefit in my mind for this type of system would be to apply speaker-level (and/or room-level) correction to each channel.  For instance, the TACT operates at room-level, when some of the "damage" is already done.  Applying speaker-level correction would fix (some of) that "damage" prior to applying room correction.

[ctviggen]

I mean "speaker-level correction for each channel would fix...".