Active Speakers

One of the more recent tech expos showed off new active speakers by Polk Audio. These speakers mount flush in the wall, so they take up as little room as possible in your system. The speaker system features Intelligent Digital Amplifiers by D2Audio, and the MXS Amplifiers, by the same company. This system effectively amplifies sound three times, to achieve astounding quality of sound.

Intelligent amplifiers help active or powered speakers to being the elements of excellent sound quality to this new series of in-wall speakers. They have a built-in IP and DSP protocol, and this makes them the number one choice for many electronics vendors who want to be on the cutting edge of sound technology.

The CEO of D2Audio says that he is pleased to combine his company's best intelligent amplifiers with the reputation that Polk Audio has for excellent quality in sound. It is felt that true audiophiles will flock to this new collaborative system, because it helps to fuel the new trend toward active loud speakers.

The LC80i-IP and LC265i-IP in-wall speakers feature digital audio processing, and they include bi-amplification and tri-amplification in the same unit, giving you low distortion levels for truly faithful music reproduction. The Digital Audio engine and electronic crossovers have embedded DSP, and also provisions for TCP/IP controller interfaces, and this is all built into these speakers, enabling them to give you numerous demonstrable benefits. Each speaker drive has its own frequency band and its own EQ, and the crossovers are active, which means these active speakers don't need passive electronics to work beautifully.

The beautiful sound quality accompanied by several unique features can be heard whether the speakers are used with digital interfaces or analog systems. The speakers give you a lot of flexibility in their inputs, and they have options to network with different audio sources as well.

Integrators will be able to accomplish more in amplified speakers than you could have done with passive speakers and external amplifiers. With the amplifiers located at the speakers, you won't have sound loss if you have a long run of speaker cable. The speakers' processor with DSP lets the integrator make time delay and frequency adjustments which can compensate for room acoustics, speaker positioning and personal preferences in listening. This performance is unusual for built-in speakers, and it is superior in most listeners' minds to all systems except the most expensive and sophisticated free-standing loud speakers.

While Polk's Lci-IP series give you the most functionality when you use them in a DigiLinX system, they are also able to accept inputs from any analog audio system and still give you significant benefits in performance. In larger areas, you may want more impact and bass reach, and there are companies who can supply that, as well. HT 208 speakers will not disappoint many listeners, because they have superb engineering and design. Eliminating the need for speaker cables and power amps, these active speakers can be easily integrated into a home theater system.