I am familiar with B&W's argument, and I just don't buy it. I have found in my own experience, and also while conducting experiments while working at Altec Lansing, that given sufficient gauge wiring, it does not matter at all audibly whether the junction of the two (or more) sections of the crossover are joined at the back of the speaker or several feet away at the power amplifier's terminals. I have always used good amplifiers with sufficient damping factors when experimenting: lacking this, and large enough gauge wire, of course alteration of the signal is possible and all bets are off.

Consider the source too. B&W is after all a speaker company, and they are in business to make money. The way they voice their speakers is a very significant part of their market identity. If this were to be eliminated, they would be basically marketing "drivers in a box".

The audio world is very heavily marketing driven. Aligning themselves with popular audiophile ideas is almost required from a marketing perspective. Saying that things like bi-wiring and passive bi-amping are not important would be as suicidal as a CD player manufacturer saying that "16 bits is enough".

B&O has just introduced a very expensive speaker system for consumer use that uses active bi-amplificaiton in addition to other DSP functions which are only possible with such a design. I believe as more speakers incorporate things like self-equalization to compensate for room interaction and various forms of DSP, active technology will become more the norm. Speakers like the Mackie HR 824 simply could not exist were it not for the flexibility afforded by active crossovers which in addition to the basic frequency division function, contour the frequency response with more precision and detail than any passive crossover could ever manage.

By the way, don't sell yourself short! Implementing an active system is not nearly difficult as you seem to think it is - no EE required! The crossover networks and equalizers can be bought off the shelf from firms like Rane and Behringer. Software based RTAs like TrueRTA are extremely powerful. Behringer makes a calibrated microphone suitable for measurement for around $80. With an inexpensive USB audio interface, a laptop, TrueRTA and the microphone, you have an extremely powerful sound analysis system.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited May 13, 2004).]