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


Hi guys,

Just a general wondering though, nowadays I've seen a lot of new active speakers, and truth to be told, I find them quite professional indeed, when I go into an audio shop and ask some advice, some might even encourage to purchase the bookshelf speakers, as they're more cost-effective and space-saving hahah.

All that asides, regarding the sound quality matter, it ain't bad at all, but I'm not sure if it's my living room just not that big or some technical matters, the sound experience is actually vivid, but yeah I also think when you put the extra circuit inside the speaker for amplifying use, it'd certainly affect the original performance more or less. Especially under this digital streaming era, every part seems to be specifically separated, so it can perform to its fullest, and lessen the interference between each device.

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

Best,

preston8452

Showing 6 responses by spenav

@ghdprentice 

That said high quality floor standing speakers out perform active ones at this time.

The folks at KII Audio would take offense in that statement 😊. I would have to agree with them. 

@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. 

@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. 

@ghdprentice 

Keep in mind, the amps in these good and some of them (KII3) great active speakers are NOT low cost class D amps. These amps are actually quite good. They are designed an optimized for one specific driver and no cable between the amp and the speakers. I used AGD class D amps in my system and I can assure you they are very capable. 
 

@holmz 

I consider the KII3 to be great. Not sure why the post with the FR was deleted. 

Good discussion folks. I like a thread that makes me smarter by providing me with more information than I started with. Thanks.