Intriguing inquiry, are floor-stand speakers always better than active speakers?

I suppose I can, but like each device can perform to its best separately I guess, hahah,

If ^that^ was true, then I would have suspected that you would have passive speaker and power amp?

PS Audio is real mellow, and Silent Angel Munich M1T is a new Roon Ready streamer, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, turned out it was't bad at ball 😂

What did you try? Without it all or with it?

If the KEF accepted the streaming, then you would remove the need for a DAC and then the ADC inside the KEF.
Whether it sounds better, the same or worse remains to be seen.

Usually less stuff in the path can be better.

If I did not already have an amp(s) etc. I would be considering the active speakers.

The Genelecs and Kef are pretty good and it gets better if one can run balanced lines to them. There is a review on the new small Genelecs (8331A) and they are $2500/each.

One also saves some coin on fuses and speaker cables.

On the other hand… there is an avoidance of them in audiophile groups.
usually with the associated talk about synergy, etc.

If one was starting from scratch, it seems like an easy choice to mix the amp, speaker, and cables into one engineered solution.

Now if the budget is 40k for speakers, it might be different story. However there is not a lot of objective measured data on many of those speakers… so it becomes more of a listen and decide endeavour.

Anyways, let me know what you think, I'd be grateful, or maybe share you existing setup with us!

Sota TT —> Nagra Phono stage —> Audible Illusions preamp —> PrimaLuna Dialogue HP —> Vandy 2C and sub

Octo DAC8 and digital side are a work in progress, as well as trying some new speakers which are smaller and score better on WAF.

@spenav how about Erin’s Sointuva plot.
That is better than the Kii and it is passive.

It is like asking if the Porsche or Audi are better… from the vantage point of an Amish horse-n-carriage.

@audioman58 

I would say 100% of the time a QUALITY separate amplifier is of much higher quality than a LOW COST class D amp in an active speaker

I am not 100% sure I agree.
It is also difficult to argue a tautological argument when a “quality amp” if quality, and it the 100% fails, then it was because that amp was not quality,

Then take a Genelec or a Kii, and is that amp inside running through a crossover? Or it is it two amps?
Where they also omitted a bunch of passive parts like coils and caps?

@holmz 

Didn’t quite get the last point, sorry. Frequency response is not the whole story, I hope you would agree. Also, because THIS floor stander has a better frequency response than THAT floor stander is not a reason to judge an entire design model inferior to another

I thought your reference to Kii meant that you considered their speakers as being good and worthwhile to have, and an example where it was worthwhile.

However you (or someone else) seems to have removed that post and the pilots.

@spenav it appears like you follow Erin’s work.

The point I was trying to make was that the Kii is indeed a top contender as is the Genelec. Those two are active.

And also on Erin’s site was a passive example.

So all three are in a multi-way tie for first place.
Which sort of means that one can achieve something nice, any way they choose to go, in that cost range of ~4-8 k$.

I do not see active getting a whole lot cheaper on the higher end.
There will undoubtedly be cheaper offerings, using cheaper drivers, and other corners cut… That will make the economy side have a better SQ, but they will be lacking SQ wise compared to the Kii and Genelec offerings.

I do miss millercarbon’s input.

Personally I prefer separates and I don’t like to idea of being stuck with a speaker manufacturer’s choice of amplifier.

I can try and fill MC’s role if you like?

@preston8452 you might consider Moab Tectonix, on a bunch of valve springs from a 6 liter LS1 engine, and power it all using a Raven amplifier, with the speaker cable held in the air with wooden trestles…

~Da def MC

My current setup is a Silent Angel Rhein Z1 which runs a Roon Core, then Munich M1T as a Roon Ready streamer, then to PS Audio DAC, then KEF active speaker, which the streaming is all based on Roon I'd say, the SQ ain't bad at all, I'm quite content.

But just not sure if applying passive speakers with separated Amps would be so much better, cuz I know for sure that'd cost my wallet so much more

Do you need the PS Audio DAC, and the Munich M1T?
Can you just do all that in the KEF?