Active or passive?

with a passive system you can build incrementally as budget allows.

I've fallen hard for several good passive designs that sounded castrated at home in my listening room. I have no idea why, but dsp active speakers sound right in my room where all the world beater passives fall flat. 
If I was shopping for a specific model that's offered in active or passive I'm betting the active model is more likely to sound like it was designed to once I get it home. Unless you have unlimited funds to build a system tailored to your taste Active is the way to go.

I bought a pair of meridian dsp8000’s for the resale money I got on a pair of revel salon 2’s and I don’t have any of the bass/room integration problems anymore. With the money I would have spent matching components to the revels I upgraded the 8k to se and I doubt anything can touch it for what I have invested.