However, I found an opinion on the Curcio site this A.M. about not using passive attenuators to drive active crossovers due to capacitance issues. I have no idea whether or not that was the case with mine but when I replaced the passive I built with the ARC LS-1 that had been on the bench, things improved markedly.

I then got serious about fiddling with the attenuation controls and found a setting that totally eliminates the shout or screech or whatever (best guess is just a CH more than 14dB) and moved one speaker back 1/4". Spkrman will appreciate that the treble is now far 'easier' and the overall sound quite natural. I would dare to compare it with the XLHs driven by the KR 1610.

This is good. No, this is great! That LS-1 with a few mods is killer. The image is now far less diffuse, the lost inner detail is mostly back and the dynamics are first rate. My main complaint, shower stall ambience, is also gone.

I will build the new boards and implement them very soon but this $95 box is pretty damned good.

You want to take your stereos temperature? Play this:

Ondine 1094-5 SACD

I know how the passive crossover sounds, and I think you'll be impressed when you're done with it. But active crossovers have definite advantages too. The trick is dialing it in. The passive has already been optimized with Spice and WTPro. So if you implement an exact copy of it in an active crossover, the sound will be smooooooth.

While you're trying different setups, try these settings: 3rd order Butterworth 1.3kHz low-pass for the woofer, 3rd order Butterworth 1.6kHz high-pass for the tweeter with 6dB/octave augmentation starting at 4kHz. Those settings should make your active crossover give very close to the same signals as the passive crossover does. You'll have the passive crossover's excellent on-axis and off-axis response, with the added benefits of reduced bandwidth on each amp from going active.

The darn 16ohm woofer means huge coils and the parts for the board run to $200 so it'll be a few weeeks until I can order them. Looking forward to it.

***The little dials on the ART tell me I'm near 14dB attenuation but I can't be sure. 14dB wasn't quite right with the old passive crossover. What can be done to tweak it a bit w/o going to the full next step down? 15 and 30 ohms with a .22cap, perhaps? Something else?***

Tweaking the attenuation I was referring to the passive Pi crossover.

What's astounding about this one is the new-to-me Barber Toccata Festiva and Poulenc Concerto in G Minor. As good as when I first discovered Arvo Part.

Just for reference, I use 15 ohm and 33 ohm (.33 mfd cap) as those were easy to get from PE.

Ron