Crossover sound quality - Analogue vs Digital

Had to be discussed sooner or later...

Higher priced digital LMS are typically feature packed and exceed expectations, but many still argue they can never provide the same sound quality as analogue...

Comments ?

right! I used to say analogue over digital for sound, but digital is more hands on so to speak, almost endless what you can do with them

it also super impresses the client when you get out your laptop and start to play with the sound

and now digital is getting better sounding IE: more natural like the analogue

I like analogue, but I could never go back to it

LOL, OR! analogue users don't know how to use digital, and are using it as an excuse

I remember my Dad would get me round his house NYD and asked me too adjust the year date on his video player, I did show him once but his head would look like it's going to explode, payment was a roast dinner, so wasn't all bad. I'm not digressing, just explaining that some peeps don't like change, and like the old way of doing things

Digital LMS pack things like limiters, delays, param eqs, polarity/phase change, change lockout, wireless laptop control into 1U/2U, and are perfect tool for 99% of people.

Guess if you have fully hornloaded system, Digital LMS is the only way to control large scale applications.

My analogue crossover sounds great, but by the time I added EQ and limiting it tok up a rack on its own.
Also changing anything took an age as I built it all up myself and all the crossover frequencies and slopes were hardwired into the circuit.
I bought a secondhand DCX with the 'Frying eggs' problem and fixed it up and recapped it for a bit of an audio boost. It takes up 1U of space and does almost everything that I had before. The beauty of the DCX is its flexibility. If you need a different setup it just needs dialing in! I built a calibration mic and used it to measure and EQ my system and I also set the delays up with a microphone. Once you have tuned the system to this extent it is hard to imagine going back to analogue.
The biggest issue that I have with the DCX is the limiters. I find that at the moment the bass limiting in particular sounds very rough. I am trying to find a way to use the dymamic compression to help stop the limiter sounding so harsh. The smoothest limiting i have is a old Behringer Composer 2100 which sounds very smooth when using the clip limiting compared to the DCX.

Well, the post is about comparing the two for quality, not what we prefer to use. It's hard to ignore the sound of top quality HI FI cabs that invariably have passive networks inside. It might be possible to get digital up a peg or two by using more quality components. There are more cheap actives than expensive ones, and you have to remember that most things we buy in the Industry are now built down to a price. An electronics expert might be able to tell us whether, if money was no object, could we get a DSP that would definitely satisfy us sound wise.

what i love about analogue is the absolutely true sound you get. and also the hands on usage of them.

the thing that is really annoying me about LMS' is the lack of easily accessible dials for each channel - although some have this

sounds like you need a pre-amp saul

...gets coat!

Xoc1 wrote: The biggest issue that I have with the DCX is the limiters. I find that at the moment the bass limiting in particular sounds very rough. I am trying to find a way to use the dymamic compression to help stop the limiter sounding so harsh. The smoothest limiting i have is a old Behringer Composer 2100 which sounds very smooth when using the clip limiting compared to the DCX.

Yes and yes. I don't use the limiters on the DCX.

I have a separate berry mdx 4400 4x chan limiter/compressor thingy just below the DCX, permanently wired on each O/P. Also only use theshold and ratio settings, not brickwall peak limiter, and it really works well.

Tony.A.S.S. wrote: An electronics expert might be able to tell us whether, if money was no object, could we get a DSP that would definitely satisfy us sound wise.

Regularly speak to Electronics wiz/soundman, even though he is thoroughly modern, and sees the need for the digital LMS, he states unfortunately the A/D and obligatory D/A process will always cost something in terms of quality..

levyte357 wrote:

Tony.A.S.S. wrote: An electronics expert might be able to tell us whether, if money was no object, could we get a DSP that would definitely satisfy us sound wise.

Regularly speak to Electronics wiz/soundman, even though he is thoroughly modern, and sees the need for the digital LMS, he states unfortunately the A/D and obligatory D/A process will always cost something in terms of quality..

well of course, it's the nature of a digital signal, just an image of the original material. However high the sample rate is, it'll never be the same, (even if we can't tell the difference). smiley36