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Reverse-engineering my speakers' API to get reasonable volume control

(jamesbvaughan.com)
287 points jamesbvaughan | 1 comments | 25 Jul 24 15:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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christina97 ◴[27 Jul 24 10:05 UTC] No.41085534[source]▶
For those considering buying speakers: (1) do it, (2) get passive ones and a separate amp. Honestly it’s such a mature market that buying these active speakers just creates e-waste. Keep the e-waste to the amp. You can get really solid speakers for $300 and a cheap amp with BT for $50-100, replacing them basically independently depending on your needs.
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Endurancee ◴[27 Jul 24 12:47 UTC] No.41086235[source]▶
Quality of active speakers are really good these days, they have matched amps and speakers from neumann, genelec etc also has active crossover which is superior than any passive setup. Mature market sure, but even companies like KEF who didn't offered or focussed much on active systems, have growing range of options now.
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2OEH8eoCRo0 ◴[27 Jul 24 13:31 UTC] No.41086476[source]▶
Nobody is arguing their quality is bad, but that amps die long before speakers die. Do passive speakers even die?

Also, online services built into these will die before the speakers do.

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1. BoingBoomTschak ◴[28 Jul 24 11:54 UTC] No.41092645[source]▶
You can see >30 year old Genelec 1031A all around the world in perfect working order. Their die cast aluminium models using the whole box as heatsink should be able to last even longer, theoretically.

I'd say active (especially digital active) is too much of an improvement to pass up, but if you only want to talk about waste and reliability, try to find about support and spare parts company policy. Some prestigious passive brands like Revel have some forum horror stories about lack of spare parts for 10 year old models that barely got discontinued while Genelec says https://www.genelec.com/product-warranty-lifetime

Also, as someone mentioned, advanced (thermal based) limiters saving tweeter voice coils.

Disclaimer: I am a fanboy owning a pair of 8341A.