Partially active systems must be connected to an AV receiver. This supplies the five to seven satellite speakers with the necessary power. Only the subwoofer additionally works with its own amplifier. The AV receiver means that the investment in a new system is higher, but the solution is also more flexible. Finally, you can connect to an AV receiver several signal sources such as TV, satellite receiver, PC, game console and mp3 player at the same time.
Fully active sets do not necessarily require an AV receiver. Here, the five to seven satellite speakers are supplied with power by the amplifiers that are built into the subwoofer in addition to the subwoofer power amplifier. This saves you the cost of a receiver, but most of our fully active subwoofers can only be connected to one source at a time.
Exceptions are the Concept E2, the Concept E Magnum Digital, the Motiv 5 Digital, the Concept F, the LT2+R and the Concept S+R.
Of course, you can also retrofit the fully active systems with an AV receiver later. The connection is then the same as that of the semi-active sets.