After 20+ years with Avanrgarde Duos I made th eswitch to Voxativ field coils. The Duos were and still are superb. The FC are slightly more cohesive and smoother and I might have just been itching to change. Could happily live with either
completely gone through and upgraded. Stainless steel platter and brass bearing from Peak Audio UK. Motor serviced with new bearings, and just about everything else that can be replaced/upgraded including a DIY plinth. Very happy. This is an end game turntable.
Sorane SA-12 with My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo
Kuzma 4 point 14 with Jan Allaerts MkII
EMIA LR phono corrector with silver SUT
wow, just wow
Star Sound Technologies sp4 Sistrum rack
Voxativ AC-X field coils w/ 16 foot DIY basshorns
These replaced my Avantgarde Duo Omegas. I built the 16 foot horns to cover 30-180Hz and replace stock AG woofers.
Eighth Nerve room treatments
These things really work.
GIK Acoustics Acoustic Panels
I have a very lively room with brick walls and plaster ceiling. These have tamed it. my RT60 time is almost ideal
Seymour 160" theater screen 2.35
JVC NZ8 laser projector
4K projector
Crown XLS1000
Six 2 channel power amps for height, wides, surrounds
I am guessing your passive xover lacked time-alignment? With bass horns of your size I would guess that issue alone would put the digital XO firmly in the lead.
That said, nothing at all wrong with the digital soln! I am doing it too! I guess there is some part of me that still isn't quite on-board yet.
I would love to hear more about your vinyl digitizing: in your experience are the results as good as the vinyl? Are you doing 24/96? My experiments doing same at 24/96 with a rather humble Masterlink device were very encouraging. However, the vinyl was still noticeably better so I stopped.
My system is now Orphean bass bins with the Ah! 300 horns. With EQ, no real need for tweets. I am now using a DEQX and it is very promising, though not yet optimized. No digital sound signature whatsoever.
Did you experiment with passive xovers at all?
If I had room for bass horns, I'd do it. Yours look great and must sound incredible.
Perhaps I will try Edgar bass bins or some similar ~80 Hz horn with subs underneath some time.