Active Vs. Passive

This has been discussed before. They are better because you remove the passive crossover. They are better because each amplifier drives one speaker driver over a narrow bandwidth (much easier than driving the entire 10Hz to 20 Khz range). The topology is very simple and offers better performance than the passive approach.

However, the above technical advantages do not count much as most people here like to be able to modify the sound through selection of a power amplifier.

Just picked up a pair of Genelec 8020B's for use at the office with my 4G 32GB iPhone as a source (9000+ tracks). I checked it out in a pro audio music store and was astonished how well they performed. I had looked and listened to Audioengine A5's (cheap and a great value) and many other mini studio monitors but the Genelecs blew everything away by miles (to my tastes).

I did not get a chance to check them out directly against the Focal CMS 40 or 50 (another fully active design with a great reputation) but I heard through the grapevine that many people take Focals back for repair with a broken tweeter - the Be tweeter is very good but rather delicate to be sitting on a desktop where it can break if inadvertently bumped. The Genelecs have a nice grill to protect both woofer and tweet and the overall sound works extremely well at a distance of about 1 to 3 feet - the built-in stand works extremely well. Further than 3 feet and the bass seems to roll off rapidly but I don't care as I only need them for desktop listening and not for an office party - in fact this is a feature because it means I will cause less disturbance with the neighboring office!!

Anyway - if anyone wants to check out active speakers then Genelec is a great place to start!

Caveat - this is a precision sound that allows you to break apart the entire mix (you hear what each instrument is doing) - not unlike high end ATC's - so naturally the tight accurate bass and forward mids will seem anemic to many audio enthusiasts who crave impressive kaboom boom sound and expect to have the walls humming and to hear splashy treble (the "smile EQ" that sells domestic speakers). However, musicians will enjoy these speakers greatly.

To clarify, I'm very familiar with active speakers

Do you sell active speakers?