Best active speaker

I had the ATC SCM 100 tower passive with Bel Canto 1000 reference monoblocks (series II) which sound amazing with Stealth ICs.

PMC
http://www.pmc-speakers.com/productCats.php?mode=productCats&cid=5

Other PMC active model-
PMC´s latest active monitor, the IB2S XBD-A. Similar to the industry-standard BB5 XBD-A but lighter and more affordable, and aimed at high-end reference monitoring and mastering applications, each IB2S XBD-A monitor consists of two DSP-controlled, Class-D powered cabinets fitted with PMC´s ATL™ (Advanced Transmission Line) technology: a three-way master and a slave XBD cabinet with an extra bass driver. Each channel employs two of the 10-inch piston bass drivers from the renowned IB1S and IB2S speakers, together with PMC’s hand-built 75mm mid-range fabric-dome driver and the 34mm soft-dome tweeter from the BB5 XBD-A. Each active master cabinet offers 960W of power (200W each from the HF and mid-range drivers, 560W from the LF driver) while the slave XBD cabinets contribute a further 560W, making for 1520W per channel of superbly controlled, low-distortion precision monitoring all the way down to below 20Hz. Controllable via an RJ45 remote, with user-adjustable HF and LF shelving filters, per-channel ±8dB input level trims, analogue input sensitivity from +4dB to +20dB and an AES3 digital input as standard, the IB2S XBD-A is scheduled to ship this summer.

PMC AML2 is well worth a demo!. Great review on the AML1 on 6moons.

Check out the avi adm9.1s + subwoofer. Remote controlled analog pre, DAC and active speakers all in one cabinet for around $4500 including the subwoofer. What HiFi just reviewed them.

Along with ATC, I would suggest also auditioning the Adam powered speakers. They use a Class D amplifier for the woofer; not sure what the fully powered version uses for the other drivers. I was very impressed with them, particularly due to their ribbon midrange and tweeter drivers, a very open and airy, "fast" sound akin to what you hear in live music.

ATC is the way to go. Sound is better, in my opinion.

Can't go wrong with ATC but you know that.

Consider also Focal Twin 6 - a real bargain in active designs and obviously a step up from the passive electra 1007 (but you lose all that pretty and very expensive cosmetics for better sound and more expensive stuff inside the box).

Large PMC's have clones of ATC's famous mid range (emulation = sincerest form of flattery). So that is another extremely good choice with more bass on PMC's than with ATC. Plus the excellent Volt woofers with external brackets/heat sinks look like something out of a Batman movie - very very cool.

Finally Barefoot MM27 may be worth checking out if you want an extremely small package that will have people picking up their jaws off the floor when you fire them up.

Salagar uses Icepower amps for their active line of speakers.
ATC is very good but I must say very energy wasteful. The heatsinks are hot to touch even when not in use. I read in HDD forum according to AVIhifi founder which is an ex ATC engineer that he finds ATC outdated being that they are spending way too much money on old technology that can't compete with the current ones.
Goldmund has great active speakers as well except they are insanely expensive.
Linn and Naim are great proponents of active loudspeakers.
Dynaudio has some great models as well.
Of course there's B&O that owns the Icepower technology.
If I don't mind the hassle and risk. I will get a deqx crossover with digital outputs connected with Nad M2 pure digital amplifiers with some state of the art loudspeakers.
The so called Class D is going to be outdated soon.

kers.
ATC is very good but I must say very energy wasteful. The heatsinks are hot to touch even when not in use.I read in HDD forum according to AVIhifi founder which is an ex ATC engineer that he finds ATC outdated being that they are spending way too much money on old technology that can't compete with the current on

The amps are heavily biased Class A so yes they are still using some of the best OLD technology (no digital amps or DSP processing like with Meridian actives). They are also massively over-engineered and expensive and play much louder than most people need. Ashley has some not unfounded criticisms of ATC approach which is slow to incorporate the latest technologies that consumers expect. To be fair though, in the pro market the relative stability of their tried and proven bullet proof designs are seen as an advantage.

Meridian

how does genelec compare to atc?

how does genelec compare to atc?

Put it this way, when George Massenburg built his latest studio (after 30 years as a renown recording engineer, equipment designer and university lecturer) he installed BOTH.

Ninety tons of MDF were cut and milled to a final cut weight of 40 tons. Beginning with a room footprint of 36' x 25' x 27', the one-inch square MDF pegs come out of the walls and ceiling in lengths that vary from 6 to 40 inches — and no two of the hundreds of thousands of “tines” are the same length.

Somehow, I don't think he cut corners on the speakers - personal preferences may lean one way or the other but both are good.

You can read more here

S.G.R.speakers are winning over some really serious audiophiles.
I have not heard them but when people with a long history of good equipment like B&W 802Ds and Krell amps sell them to buy SGRs and claim they give a vast leap in performance it makes you sit up and take notice.

Wow thanks for the great find! Jtgofish. I never heard of S.G.R before. It seems like the land from down under is particularly fond of the active approach.

When I look at the specs on the ATC 150s, I'm a little suprised. The 2 dB roll-off is at 60 Hz. The speaker is 4' high and 2' wide. Why don't they have better specs for their size? For comparison I have a pair of Aerial 5B bookshelf speakers with the exact same 2 dB point. Yes, the 6 dB point difference is notable (25 Hz vs. 50 Hz) but the Aerials are 1' by 8" wide.

ATC specs are conservative (freestanding in open space). You certainly do not get "quantity" from ATC bass - their design is only about quality and approaching the performance of electronics in terms of distortion. The 150's are probably around 0.3% THD from 30 Hz upwards at live concert levels in a moderate room whereas most speakers have about at least 10% and often approaching 50% THD in the LF range - even when played at modest SPL's.

Most people are very surprised at the "lack of bass" from such as large speaker. As you don't get all the LF harmonic distortion that is normal for most other designs and increases the perceptive loudness of the bass - it takes a while to get used to the clean sound of 150's.

ATC speakers starts rolling off in the bass early and more gently than a lot of speakers out there. This will help with room integration as the room will definitely boost the lowest bass by quite a measure thus achieving flatter response in room. ATC speakers also put more emphasis on sound pressure and distortion levels, so as the result they would compromise in terms of bass extension. But really, who nowadays have a 1000 sqft listening room anyway?
What really bothers me is ATC's treble extension. The seas unit they have been using just doesn't go high enough. Sounds more forced than effortless.

Another factor you should look into is that ATC don't put a lot of emphasis on cabinet resonance control. Perhaps aside from the Anniversary 150s, all of their speaker cabinet sings to the drivers quite a bit which is quite baffling since they are so heavily constructed. ATC is definitely not one of those speakers that uses the latest computer modeled cabinet design topology.

Another factor you should look into is that ATC don't put a lot of emphasis on cabinet resonance control.

The freestanding set of ATC's that Pink Floyd use have additional bracing inside. Many studios soffit mount them.

What really bothers me is ATC's treble extension

Indeed ATC focus on the range up to 12 KHz with soft dome tweeter (preferring damped type drivers over rigid types) - this design definitely rolls off earlier than some metal domes like the Be dome or designs with super-tweeter.

These are considered to be excellent:

http://www.neumann-kh-line.com/neumann-kh/home_en.nsf/root/prof-monitoring_studio-monitors_nearfield-monitors_O300#

As for the best, I would say the large ATC's.

also recommend consider MERIDIAN active speakers.