bestbang4thebuck:

I am only active tri-amping my left and right mains, with the stereo subwoofers the lowest part of that "tri". The crossovers are 4th order Linkwitz-Riley types that I built myself. For active components in these crossovers, I am using Analog Devices' BUF-03 video buffer ICs. These are extremely fast (of course, since their for video) and as a result are very linear through the audio range and way beyond. Their only downside is that they are somewhat noisy, so I have to hit the input of the crossover somewhat hard at +15dbu for full scale digital for CDs (2.0 VAC). Doing this, and padding down the input of the power amps makes the total system nice and quiet.

The center speaker is "active" bi-amped with a low level L-C passive crossover (not speaker level!) splitting the signal at 500Hz and sending it to two channels of a tube stereo amp. This approach is nice-n-simple and adds no active component colorations, but it is of course only 2nd order, but that's OK in this instance.

The surrounds are un-modified JBL 8330s which are the same speaker you would find in your average cinema or dubbing stage. They are pretty good, although I have blown a tweeter in one of them. Ooops!

There are pictures of this setup (including the amp and crossover rack) in the "systems" saloon if you haven't already seen them.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited June 11, 2003).]