Active studio monitors. Nobody has them. Why?

Many studios mix with B&W, Acoustic Energy, Celestion, ATC, and Roy at Green Mountain said that there's been a great studio demand for their Europa speakers, so I think it's a stretch to say 90% of studios master with genelecs.

Absolute Sound reviewed a pair of the more expensive (with ribbon tweeter if I remember correctly) Genelec speakers some time ago and thought they were wonderful. They too asked why such speakers are not used more often by audiophiles.

Totaly agree "Lazarus28" 10~fold. Do your home work boys !!!

example of misconception:

Genelecs response curve designed for mastering, not for musical enjoyment

active monitor's curve can be adjusted in most cases.

some of active studio monitors may perfectly suit the audiophile demands on the wise budget.

I recently hooked my $1500 Mackie 824's up to my Naim source components, and was very surprised at the overall rich sound quality when a high-quality front-end was involved. I was using the famous NAP 250 power amp into the semi-famous SBL speakers, and the Mackies did a lot of things better than this combo that originally sold for $9,000!

I'm also of the opinion that anything in the ATC line including and above the Active 50 is serious VFM vs. the sound quality. I've heard two systems with 100's and one with 50's that have seriously redefined my definition of high-end audio.

Why don't more companies make active monitors? Well, it could have something to do with the fact that most speaker engineers don't also dabble in amplifier or active crossover electronics. One (idiot) salesman in a high-end store in Denver argued with me earlier this year that passive crossovers are better than active, else why would JM Labs have used passive in their $85,000 model? No other argument than that - just that they're so expensive they must be perfect.

Another factor might be that in the price-tight market these days, they don't want to fight the active vs. passive battle when most consumers go into stores with a set budget in mind. Would you really want to have to train salespeople to upsell a "$2500 customer" on an equivalent $3500 pair with amps built in, or a lesser speaker with amps at the same target price? It gets messy, except within the high-end niche that ATC seems to be doing very well in.

Graham