For those that have heard Dutch & Dutch 8c..

Well if you follow the discussions on this forum you will notice that lots of audiophiles seem very “afraid” of actives or the pro sound. They don’t really yet want to understand what’s the future…no one will buy big SS amps in ten years.

Why not start with Roon and learn how to use its eq. Very good besides that Roon itself is great. I put a REW measurement into Roon and then manipulate it further manually based on my hearing and liking. Changes it every day to perfection one day :-)

My brother and I just returned from 3 days at AXPONA in Chicago. We hit ~80% of the rooms and found the 8Cs to be among the most impressive, so much so that we went back and had a much longer listen at the end.

Speakers were on tall stands around 1 ft off the front wall surrounding a huge fixed glass window. They were streaming from a laptop running Roon directly into the speakers, that's all. They said REW had been used to correct the room for 200hz and below. 

This was our first time experiencing active speakers or room correction.  Bass was incredible - exceptionally tight and deep.  Imaging was great. Not sure I'd call the overall presentation musical, but I definitely could happily enjoy extended, fatigue-free listening.

I asked what to do if you don't use Roon.  They said a more typical installation is your own streamer, DAC and preamp into the speakers' XLRs.

For perspective, I've been an audiophile for nearly 40 years (started in high school) and my current system is: Totem Tribe Towers, PS Audio Directstream DAC MkI, Bluesound Node 2i (soon to be upgraded), BAT VK-3000SE hybrid integrated, PS Audio P10 power regenerator, and various high end power, XLR and speaker cables.

I've got a challenging room and don't want to look at or spend the $ on acoustic panels, so pretty sure I'll be adding room correction soon to take my system to the next level.

I heard these speakers at Axpona and they sounded amazing! The only downsides In my opinion is the built in DAC down samples everything to 48Khz. This may be fine for much of the music but seems like a limitation to me. Also, the speakers need connections on the back for power, preamp input, network connection and possibly a connection between the speakers. If you have a problem with the DAC, amplifier, DSP or speaker then the entire speaker goes back for repair. Can these be repaired in this Country? The bass on these was amazing! These speakers are now $15,500. 

I heard them too, I agree with willywonka, but I think used for less than 10k are bargain.