The Active Crossover

In trying to better understand just what makes an active crossover so much better than a passive one, I came across a page all about crossovers at The Well Tempered Computer which says,

An active crossover gets its input from the pre-amp and sends the signal to multiple outputs, each connected to a power amp.
Each power amp drives only one driver.
As the passive crossover is removed out of the power circuit, the amp has now full control over the driver (damping).

In the case of the DSP in the JH-3A, though, the crossover is implemented in the digital domain and not after any amplification. This also means that we will be able to reprogram the device with updated crossover software and implement custom EQ’s if we so choose.

But I digress!

Edit: I’m being told on the forum that one of the main, new contributors to the sound quality of the JH-3A is the fact that here, the phase and time are tweaked to be perfect in each custom pair. This means that the sound from each of the drivers arrive to your eardrums at exactly the right time so as to reproduce precisely the intended waveform. This is allegedly not possible with a passive crossover. I’m led to believe that this, along with the true definition of an “active crossover” above, add up to the jaw-dropping sound I heard at CanJam.

2 Comments to The Active Crossover

1. 

   Very interesting article. I feel truly enlightened on the topic through your clear and concise argument of the differences between the two.
Brad on June 10th, 2010

2. [...] are apparently NOT changing as the music plays as I assumed from the word “active”. See The Active Crossover for a better [...]
JHAudio’s New JH-3A IEM System | Threadbox.net on June 11th, 2010

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