Why aren't active speakers more popular?

zingo

Why aren't active floorstanding or stand-mount speakers more popular for home stereo listening? I know that Meridian, Dynaudio, and Naim make them, along with many smaller companies, but they are not popular and not a large market share. Most people use them for desktop application, and they are already used for the recording industry, so why not 2 channel stereo? I know it provides less flexibility and a higher initial cost, but a good pair of active speakers are well designed from the internal power amps to the drivers, without worry of component matching.

Just my thought for the day...

Dawgfish

I think there are few reasons for it. Most active speakers are looked at as HT speakers rather than true 2 channel music speakers. The few active speakers I heard, Def Techs, some of the Polks with active powered subs, etc. are geared towards HT use. The bass I've heard from these speakers in the past was sloppy, boomy, and not musical for my tastes for two channel listening. I certainly haven't heard any of the active speakers you mentioned above, and they may not have this problem at all, but I think perception of the public as active speakers being geared more towards HT has a lot to do with it. I know Martin Logan made a active speaker in the past that caught my eye, but without hearing them, I wasn't about to pulll the trigger on them.

I think another thing is the tinkering, gear swapping tendiecies of a lot of us in this hobby. I like to switch amps, ICs,speaker cables, etc form time to time, both trying to expand my audio horizons and also just to change things up. Active speakers eliminates a lot of this tinkering/swapping and I think that drives a lot of us away. Most of us just don't have the cash to swap out a truely quality active speaker that is worthy of two channel listening every few weeks or even months. Changing an amp, IC, etc on the other hand, that is much more financially feasable for a lot of folks. Just my dos centavos.

EndersShadow

^Agreed, however the inverse of that is true as well. For those not wanting to be constantly swapping amps, ect you can buy a good set of speakers once that have a built in amp and then focus on everything else.

From a cost perspective its much cheaper, you have FAR less cables and stuff in the way. Plus the speaker was built for the specs of the amp driving it so they should be a perfectly mated match, which we sometimes search high and low for.

So while the tinkering goes away and they do have a higher initial investment (and harder to replace with new ones, so you better do lots of demo'ing of em), once you have made that investment its easy to upgrade the rest of your gear around them.

You only need 1 set of IC's between your pre and the speakers rather than two, which means you can spend more on em...

I see both sides and personally want to get into some Active speakers for my desktop setup, and wouldn't mind looking at some good 2 channel active speakers as well.

Dawgfish

Those are good points as well. Not having to spend money on the amp, speaker cables, etc leaves more for the source and pre and equipment on the upstream side of things. I guess If I ever heard a powered speaker that sounded good for two channel use and was in my budget, I would have to give them strong consideration. Just doesn't seem like there's much out there which goes back to the OPs original comment and question.

I would have really like to heard those MLs. I can't remember the name of them. They had built in 200wpc class D amps in them. Audio Advisor had them on sale last summer I think for around $1500-2000 so per pair. I was really intrigued by them.

EndersShadow

So Zingo.... give us some links to look at for some decent active speakers for 2 channel.... , cause I am to lazy to do the google myself :biggrin:

zingo

This is what originally got me thinking on this topic: http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/ele/3424355948.html

tonyb

The Meridians are light years ahead of your standard fair active speaker. Cost wise, not in the camp of your average Joe either. They pretty much set the standard as far as I'm concerned on how to do active speakers for 2 channel. Just throwing a built in amp for the lows and calling it active will usually leave most unimpressed.

Having owned every one of Polks powered towers, I can honestly say not one tickled my fancy on the musical side. Ht.....yeah great, music...nah.....and I'm talking the SRT's too. The Meridians are coheasive top to bottom, you wouldn't know they were powered unless someone told you. They were ahead of their time, but now seem to fit right in this digital age.

Price points, quality, doing active right, probably doesn't fit in to mass marketed consumer targets which is why you don't see 2 channel active speakers much. It's been reserved for near field listening and HT on one side and high end on the other, nothing inbetween.

skrol

It could work. You would probably want to run balanced (XLR) connections between the pre-amp and active speakers to keep noise down over the likely longer runs of cable.

ravaneli

They are expensive, but I agree it is better than having these ridiculous amp superiority discussions. Buy it with vendor match and be done. Amps really don't matter much because any half decent amp is super clean sound-wise already, and the audio signature of your system is determined 90% by your speakers and 9% by room acoustics. That is where the big +/-db in freq response comes.

jbooker82

Why arnt TV's with built in DVD / Blu Ray players more popular.

skrol

Having a high quality amp integrated with a high quality speaker is certainly possible and can be technically a good approach. However, there just may not be much of aa market for audiophile grade active speakers. It would be very expensive when you consider the price of both the amp and speaker. The audiophile who cares that much about sound quality and would be willing to spend that much would most likely be very discriminating and feel more comfortable choosing the amp to his or her liking rather than being locked into the speaker's amp. We also see a lot of amp swapping. Folks like to try different components to upgrade or just to try something different. For someone who is space limited and wants a clean setup, it could be ideal.

bobsauto49

I actually enjoyed my RT2000i's for 2ch. Mind you when I owned them,it was only my 2nd set of speakers,but I thought the sub blended well! I always thought they would have sounded better with another mid driver,which of course is the RT3000's,but never got my ears on a set of those! I kinda miss those speakers!

mantis

Meridian systems are about as balanced as one could get. As said above , you would have no idea your listening to powered speakers. They are remarkable in every way. For theater or 2 channel , they can hang with anyone.

I would be very proud to own a full Meridian system.

[Deleted User]

Guys,
This thread was asking the question about why speakers that contain their own amplifier(s) aren't more common, actually a perfectly valid question. Leave all the other back-and-forth bickering out of it, if you don't have a pertinent opinion on the subject then stay out of it.
Thanks, Ken

F1nut

Post #10 is not a pertinent opinion.

Face

F1nut wrote: »

Post #10 is not a pertinent opinion.

+1... If the thread was going to be cleaned up, you may as well remove the inaccurate post as well.

zingo

ravaneli wrote: »

They are expensive, but I agree it is better than having these ridiculous amp superiority discussions. Buy it with vendor match and be done. Amps really don't matter much because any half decent amp is super clean sound-wise already, and the audio signature of your system is determined 90% by your speakers and 9% by room acoustics. That is where the big +/-db in freq response comes.

I have to disagree as I spent last night switching between my BAT and a new Hafler DH200. :eek:

However, the (mature) first assumption that you have to make in this conversation is that a pair of active speakers that may compete with passive speaker/amp combos most of us have would be well designed with component matching. With Dynaudio's newer powered speaker line, I'd be interested to compare those to a similar pair of their active speakers; Would probably be as apples-to-apples as you could arrange.

pitdogg2

For me the last pair of active speakers I read about were in fact Meridian 10-12 yrs ago. If i remember right they were upper 5 figures in cost. That for me would be a GREAT set-up for all my gear. I couldn't imagin what a repair on a set of speakers like that would cost out of warranty.

zingo

Repairs on active speakers are certainly a concern, and something to consider as I continue to consider active speakers for my set-up.

There aren't too many powered speakers options out there, but some of the offerings are interesting...

zingo

Anyone ever seen or heard a pair of these?

Canton CD 3200 Active

zingo

Decided to put my money where my mouth is and try a pair of fully powered speakers...

KellyMic

My first powered speaker was the RT1000p and I drooled (and still do) over the RT3000p, I love the look of the 3000! I recently upgraded and it came down to the LSi15 or powered LSi25. With my past happiness of the RT1000p I went with the LSi25 and due to the larger sub. I listen to 2ch music 99% of the time and have no regrets at all. I still power them with a big amp for the top end and the blend very well. I did have to tweak some settings to tighten up the bass but they sound great.

I think the initial sticker shock is one reason and I know a lot of people that like to sample different amps with their speakers. Also, some people are Tube heads and only want tubes. I've been looking into getting a tube amp to replace my mid/highs now and using the Solid State amp to drive the low end. Been doing lots of research and feedback from some trusted people and using solid state for low end and tubes for the rest is the best way to go. Only one way to find out, busy looking for a tube amp to get now!

Dawgfish

zingo wrote: »

Decided to put my money where my mouth is and try a pair of fully powered speakers...

Wow! Those are the ones I have been wanting to try. How do they sound?

zingo

Powered subwoofers KellyMic are one thing, but these are completely active speakers that use a 200wpc B&O ICEpower amp to power the panel and woofers in each speaker. Plug the speakers in (which you would have to do anyway), run RCA cables from your preamp, and press play. They easy factor is off the chart as they simply go into standby when they have no signal.

The sound quality is at least as good as compareable sized electrostatics, plus a little better synergy since the monoblocks are hardwired inside. The bass is great too as it uses two 6.5" woofers which blends much better with than the larger woofers, and still has good output.

Dawgfish

Cool. I almost bought a set last summer when Audio Advisor was having a blow out on them. I ended up buying a set of Sequel IIs that I found localy on Craig's List. The Sequel IIs were not a good match for my setup and listening room. I bet these (Source correct?) would have been a much better match. If I ever find a set close to me, I'm going to jump on them.

zingo

They are the Purity. I obviously got them used as they have been discontinued, but this pair was built in 2010 and not purchased u til 6 months ago, so I'm happy. The only thing they didn't come with was the spikes, but those will be easy enough to get.

FTGV

zingo wrote: »

Powered subwoofers KellyMic are one thing, but these are completely active speakers that use a 200wpc B&O ICEpower amp to power the panel and woofers in each speaker.

Technically these are powered not fully active since the crossover is done at speaker level not line level,and only a single ch of amplification.

20hz

I know a guy who bought 5 of those jbl active moniters for his home theatre he said it sounded good ( it better for the $$ )
but most tweakers like me would rather try new amps wires etc and active stuff is kinda a big lump of money

zingo

Fair enough. You are right as they have the amp module mounted to the floor of the speaker cabinet which feets a standard, passive two-way crossover, which feeds the drivers.