A digital sound processor, what for ?

If you wander around on the Internet seeking information about professional digital crossovers used in domestic hi-fi systems you are very likely to be disappointed. You will find indeed many sites praising the merits of such or such highly sophisticated product but most of these equipments have in common the fact of being almost entirely automatic (DEQX, TACT, just to name a few)

And you will also find out many forums where "gurus" stress out the fact that digital sound processors or crossovers are to be avoided like a pest. We will not discuss about sound processors here. This type of device have,in my humble opinion, two majors issues : the fact that they work in automatic mode in most of the cases, meaning that you have very little control on their behaviour, the other aspect being often a ripp-off price tag.

Why to choose active crossovering ? You may first want to read this webpage to understand the benefits of active crossovers in a hifi system. This website is definitely orientated towards the discerning audiophile who want to understand what he is doing and is consequently eager to learn how to optimize in an intelligent way his system : how is a digital processor working, how one must use it to retrieve all of the details the sound engineer has put on a high quality recording which today, in 100% of the cases, is digitally recorded and mastered (and yes, vinyle or analogue sound lovers should know that the actual number of studios or mastering companies working with analogue equipment is close to zero, hence my doubts about so called superiority of analog vs. digital).

Consequently I am claiming that for a reasonable budget (less than 1000€) it is possible to make evolve your multi-amplified system to a certain form of perfection, this by using a professional digital signal processor which needs some modifications though to make it transparent like crystal. There is such an equipment on the market, it has all the bells and whistles and it is sold at a steal price. This makes it the ideal product for the amateur music lover.

Purpose of this preamble is to bring contradiction to those ill birds of omen who, for the vast majority of them, did not implement or understand the minimal technical do's and dont's for obtaining the sound we are all dreaming about. To those I would ask are you on the road to Audio Hell ?

Site translation in progress - thanks for your patience - 10th JUNE 2008 new page added