The Advantages of "active" over "passive" Audio Systems

The limitations of loudspeaker units require the use of cross-over filters to build loudspeakers which cover the entire audio band. Such filters do, however, have a number of disadvantages, which have stimulated the search for different topologies, the active cross-over filtering being the most well-known. However, the application of an active topology allows the introduction of loudspeaker unit specific corrections, which leads to a major breakthrough in sound reproduction as the frequency range can be extended, the temporal response can be improved, linear and non-linear distortions can be reduced and the headroom of the audio system can be increased. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------