Active Kudos Titans w/Devialets?

[wiresandmore]

Hi

Is anyone running Kudos Titans in active mode with their Devialet amplifiers? 

I have 440Pro w/PMC 25.26, and I'm looking at other speaker options. 

Interested in any experiences!

Thanks

[Pim]

I vaguely remember someone here saw them set up actively with Devialet at a show in the UK.
@Confused ?

[Confused]

I vaguely remember someone here saw them set up actively with Devialet at a show in the UK.
@Confused ?

You have a very fine memory sir!

I too vaguely remember this, but better than a vague memory, I found the original post(s):

https://devialetchat.com/Thread-The-Indu...8#pid50638

I think there is a key point to keep in mind when considering multi-amp / active type set-ups. There are basically two ways of doing this. One is to use multiple amps, for bass, mid, treble or similar, and keep the speakers crossover electronics. The second way is to remove the crossover electronics and use filters in the amp to mimic the crossover.

The second approach is theoretically superior. Yet there is more. There was some discussion about this at a Deviaet event a few years ago. The Devialet guy explained that with electronic crossovers, it is not possible to fully create the "perfect" crossover, there are limits and compromises. However, if a given speaker manufacturer provided Devialet with details of the perfect crossover, including frequency and phase characteristics and similar, then Devialet could actually create this perfect crossover using the DSP within the Devialet. From a technical perspective, this in theory is the approach that would yield the best results.

With a bit of searching, I found one of the posts I made after the Devialet event:

I have remembered another point that was made during one of the side meetings after the main talk.  This was relating to Devialet's initiative to provide fully active, speaker specific systems.  I was told that Devialet are currently in discussion with a number of speaker manufacturers regarding bespoke active amplification.  How this was explained to me was that speaker crossovers can only subtract from the signal, if the crossover function is performed by the Devialet, it can add, subtract, correct phase and so on.  So Devialet would liaise with the speaker manufacturer, establish from them the perfect "digital" version of the crossover for a given speaker, this is then programmed into a number of Devialet's to produce an active system.  I asked if this was one of the reasons behind the new 210 Pro dual mono, so to provide a lower cost dual mono that might be used for tweeter duties in an active set-up.  Apparently this is not the case, with one issue at the moment being that the different model types cannot be "chained", so you cannot chain a 1000 Pro with a 440 Pro, for example.  This is why the Vivid set-up at Munich had 1000 Pro's with a D250 on tweeter duty.  In theory, using a 440Pro for the HF would be better, having more power and the benefit of dual mono, lower distortion etc.  

This "ultimate" approach, in true Devialet style, has it's own TLA and white paper:

https://www.devialet.com/media/dvl_media...018_en.pdf

EDIT:

I also found this:

https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Munich-2...5#pid75145

(although for Euro 160000, it is not the most cost effective solution)

[wiresandmore]

Thank you!

It looks like - while possible - it’s not been widely used. I did see Hidden Systems as a dealer referenced who look like they were offering it - I will give them a call……

[JonathanG]

Thank you!

It looks like - while possible - it’s not been widely used. I did see Hidden Systems as a dealer referenced who look like they were offering it - I will give them a call……

Hi all,

Thanks to the original poster and the replies above.

I found this thread from a search and am posting as also interested in buying Kudos Titans and the active option.

Has anyone setup Kudos with Devialet 2xmonos? I've struggled to find any reviews outside of Kudos themselves (with a 3x setup with their 808s) and would be good to know how it works compared to a passive setup, and the settings and cabling needed.

Cheers,
Jon

[JonathanG]

Thank you!

It looks like - while possible - it’s not been widely used. I did see Hidden Systems as a dealer referenced who look like they were offering it - I will give them a call……

Hi all,

Thanks to the original poster and the replies above.

I found this thread from a search and am posting as also interested in buying Kudos Titans and the active option.

Has anyone setup Kudos with Devialet 2xmonos? I've struggled to find any reviews outside of Kudos themselves (with a 3x setup with their 808s) and would be good to know how it works compared to a passive setup, and the settings and cabling needed.

Cheers,
Jon

[JonathanG]

I know the forum is very quiet* these days, but Kudos made a real effort with this active work with Devialet and I expect it's fabulous.

It would be great to hear from you! 

-
*: I say that but DevialetChat currently shows lots of people active right now, unfortunately most are not logged in.

"170 users active in the past 15 minutes (3 members, 0 of whom are invisible, and 165 guests)."

[zdenes]

I was at the aforementioned Munich event 5 years ago when they explained and demonstrated the active use of Devialet with Vivid Gaias. The video here is the one I took, just to show, not for a sound demo, of course.
They explained that they worked for MONTHS with Laurence Dickie, the designer engineer of Vivid, to get the crossover right. Although I have a two-way speaker (YG Acoustics Carmel) and two Devialets, after hearing that story, I would never dream of even trying to set them up actively. I do have a measuring mic and intermediate knowledge of using REW but designing an active crossover is an art. Not to mention, that setting the Devialets is always back and forth to an SD card, so it's way too much time, considering, you'll have to set volume, delay, etc. It took me a day just to get the sub integration right.
It is a shame that Devialet didn't make the effort to work with somewhat more affordable speakers (then the Vivid Gaia) and provide set values we could use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-DoW4Cxt9E

[darrenelding@gmail.com]

Hi

Is anyone running Kudos Titans in active mode with their Devialet amplifiers? 

I have 440Pro w/PMC 25.26, and I'm looking at other speaker options. 

Interested in any experiences!

Thanks

Hi,

I appreciate this thread is a few months old now so it may no longer be a relevant question for you, but I have just configured my Kudos Titan 707's to run as active with a pair of  Ex Pro 140's.  I have had one 140 for a couple of years and recently upgraded my speakers to the 707's.  After reading a few reviews of the improvements achievable by running in active mode, I decided to purchase a second 140 and give it a go.

The setup is very straightforward, but do definitely contact Kudos for the correct settings (they informed me that the 'default' settings Devialet suggested would seriously damage the speakers!).  The only issue I had was getting the two 140's to communicate with each other.  This seemed to be caused by one the the amps being 'hard coded' as the Master.  Trying to configure it as the companion would not work no matter what I or Devialet support tried.  Anyway switching them round fixed the issue straight away. 

After checking the cabling several times (noting what Kudos said about damaging their speakers) I turned on and I have to say the results are very good indeed!  Unfortunately, it's not possible to do a quick A/B test as switching back to Passive requires reconfiguring the amp and reconnecting the speaker cables, but all I can say is that I am very happy with the sound they are producing.  Admittedly I was very happy with their sound before the change (they really are excellent speakers) but I now no longer have that niggling feeling that I'm not getting the best performance out of them.

That annoying niggle has been replaced by a slight concern that should either of the two SD cards ever fail and the 140's start up in default settings I would instantly destroy my speakers, but some of us are never completely happy!

Hope this helps.

Darren    

[JonathanG]

I was at the aforementioned Munich event 5 years ago when they explained and demonstrated the active use of Devialet with Vivid Gaias. The video here is the one I took, just to show, not for a sound demo, of course.

They explained that they worked for MONTHS with Laurence Dickie, the designer engineer of Vivid, to get the crossover right. Although I have a two-way speaker (YG Acoustics Carmel) and two Devialets, after hearing that story, I would never dream of even trying to set them up actively. I do have a measuring mic and intermediate knowledge of using REW but designing an active crossover is an art. Not to mention, that setting the Devialets is always back and forth to an SD card, so it's way too much time, considering, you'll have to set volume, delay, etc. It took me a day just to get the sub integration right.
It is a shame that Devialet didn't make the effort to work with somewhat more affordable speakers (then the Vivid Gaia) and provide set values we could use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-DoW4Cxt9E

Hi Zdenes,

Thanks for replying on this. It's good to hear what they said way back then and as you say, a shame they didn't follow through with more on this.

Cheers.