From active to passive

Granted 

Active is still very much the way to go, this is coming from someone who’s just added the 1st 500 so convincing me otherwise might be a struggle, I did listen to Focal Stella’s a year or so ago with Naim amps and I heard nothing there to even make me consider changing 

to your point, you’re not exactly comparing like for like, as good as the SBLs are, they are only small 2 way speakers 

i suspect had you have tried active NBLs your system may be very different now 

alternatively find some DBLs then you will never need to think about speakers again, other than where to put them. ????????

lyndon

Granted posted:

I have been active for some years and always thought it could not be bettered! However I have changed from SBL's to Focal Kante no2's. These are a passive speaker so in order to make the change I have changed the 2 x 250 amps to a 300dr and ditch the snaxo crossover and hi cap. Well these speakers are quite simply stunning! Bass is amazing hence ditching the sub. The soundstage, imaging and overall sound is just so pleasing that I have never experienced my music to sound so good. Passive is certainly back on my radar.  

You are comparing one design of speaker, passive, with another, active. That is far more than a comparison of active and passive, as different designs of speaker sound different from each other, often very considerably so, and bass extension and soundstage and overall sound have far more to do with speaker design than active or passive crossover/driving. You are also using a different amp, which may also be significant to the difference in sound. Try stripping the XO out of your focals and getting an active XO and two more power amps, and then say whather you prefer active or passive, or go back to the SBLs and drive them with a single amp and passive XO - then you can say whether active or passive is better: instead of finding that one speaker driven passively sounds better than a completely different speaker driven actively.

Bearing in mind not all passive crossovers and nout all active crossovers are created equal, it is hard to judge.

Certainly there are some very highly regarded and costly speakers on the market with no bypassable passive crossover.

I lived for years under the mantra that active was best based on the active offerings from Naim and Linn in the 90's. I specifically aimed at (but never got close to) an active Linn Kaber system backed by triamped Klouts. My current system, passive though it may be, sounds better to my ears. 

Much as I'd love to ditch the plethora of black boxes (the price you pay for active Naim speakers) that clutter up our lounge, the difference between active and passive with the various Naim speakers I've been using since the year dot (SBLs, SL2s, now DBLs) is so profound I can't contemplate putting up with such a reduction in sound quality. And the comparison between active and passive using the same speakers is the only meaningful one, albeit not entirely valid either, due to differences in amplification.

I'm convinced that any passive speaker, will inevitably sound better driven actively if feasible to make it so. That doesn't mean all passive speaker systems sound poor; I've heard some wonderful passive speakers. But apart from the new active Kudos range there are none I would consider as suitable replacements for my active DBLs.

My experience with NBLS active is vastly improved performance over passive. They were designed active . It would be difficult to change .

Thanks Gents for your always concise opinions. Whilst I understand the active over passive advantages and my reversal from active, my observation was in listening to the new Focal Kantas was impressive over my previous set up which, I acknowledge, was a completely different ball game to compare. However in going for this speaker  (which I am mightly impressed with) and which enforces me to go passive together with the 300 amp really has improved on what I had as an active set up. 

It’s all about whatever works. A member of the Forum switched from active SL2s with two 500s to passive PMC Fact 12s and considered it a big improvement. Active can be tweaky, and simplicity often wins. 

hungryhalibut posted:

It’s all about whatever works. A member of the Forum switched from active SL2s with two 500s to passive PMC Fact 12s and considered it a big improvement. Active can be tweaky, and simplicity often wins. 

And it would be nice to see that member on here again one day.  

It would be interesting to have known your impressions of the SBLs with the 300dr. I have a keen interest in this topic having gone from Olive 250/SBLs to 300(non-dr)/SBLs to 300(non-dr)/SL2s and now am about to go active wth two 300s.

The 300 produced a huge uplift in the SBLs over a single Olive 250, and I heard my SL2s (before I got them) active with 2x250drs in the then owners’ living room and preferred 300/SBL in my living room. But that was beaten by 300/SL2s in my living room hence that’s what I now have

anyway - not quite sure why I just typed all that - except that there’s a ridiculous number of variables to consider with no chance to try most of them out 

hungryhalibut posted:

It’s all about whatever works. A member of the Forum switched from active SL2s with two 500s to passive PMC Fact 12s and considered it a big improvement. Active can be tweaky, and simplicity often wins. 

Being familiar with both said systems, it's fair to say those Fact 12s, in that particular room and system, did indeed sound very good, but then they are completely different speakers. For some reason we never determined, something was amiss with the SL2/ 2x500 setup, and it actually sounded better as a “Wonky”, using one 500 and one 300. Weird...

Tweaky? Not my experience with my SL2/ 2x500 setup, nor my other actives.

Yes, that forum member's contributions here are much-missed!

Granted posted:

I have been active for some years and always thought it could not be bettered! However I have changed from SBL's to Focal Kante no2's. These are a passive speaker so in order to make the change I have changed the 2 x 250 amps to a 300dr and ditch the snaxo crossover and hi cap. Well these speakers are quite simply stunning! Bass is amazing hence ditching the sub. The soundstage, imaging and overall sound is just so pleasing that I have never experienced my music to sound so good. Passive is certainly back on my radar.  

That's very interesting - for logistical reasons my active SBLs are currently in storage, and I'm using old Epos ES14's which sound very good on a Nova out to a NP250.

I'm really scratching my head trying to figure out where to go next - service my 2x250's and back to SBLs or consider some more modern speakers - interestingly the SBLs had great authority run active but never seemed to go as low bass wise as the ES14's I upgraded from many years ago, but kept for home theatre duties.

In my case, while having Allaes, instead of changing speakers I upgraded from passive to wonky active 152/155/200 with 2 available HCDRs. Gradually upgraded to 282 and early this year I replaced the 155 with 250.2DR into the active family. Still wonky with the best power amp to the tweeter.

2 months ago I managed to get a demo Supercap DR. Tried all the combinations and finally SCDR is now powering the Snaxo which I think it works well compared to powering 282. Maybe it’s my ears. Still looking around for an SL2 or a Super 20A, but so far there is no news on Snaxo 242 for the Kudos.

Cheers

Living in Lancs,

I too use a 300 with SBLs and love the combination. I suspect passive 300 is better than active 250s (which I have heard but not at the same time). But in my small room the extra boxes and cable to go active would drive me mad. Fortunately I love it just how it is.

Stu