Opinions and recommendations on active loudspeakers

a recommendation: The AirPulse Model 1-A200 or if you have more money the A300. Get the stands as well. I have the Model 1 and the midrange is as good as it gets at this price range. These are engineered to be studio monitors as well as hifi boxes... if there is a powered monitor better at 800-1200 USD per pair I don't know about them... there is a review of the new A300 in Sound on Sound. 

I agree with Lonemountain's choices of great rock albums.  I think Pretzel Logic is as good as AJA based on my copies.  I guess I haven't heard a great Led Zeppelin LP pressing yet.

I know that this isn’t a speaker building forum....  But my last set of speakers were built entirely by me.  I used an electronically crossed 3 way line array.  I had 16 3.5 inch mid ranges, 32 dome tweeters, and one 12 inch sub woofer per channel.  I used an analog Rane crossover between the preamp and the power amps.  The tweeter array had a 20 watt RMS/ch power amp, the mid range array had a 100 amp RMS/ch, and the woofers had a 375 watt RMS/ch.  There are many reason why active crossovers can be better than passive ones.  Let me list some(they are easier to do if you have a multiple speaker line array, btw):

1.   Effectively (up to) twice the 'real' power of the amplifiers themselves,  as nothing is lost in the crossover components

2.   Reduced intermodulation distortion

3.   Elimination of the low frequency passive crossover, its inherent losses, potentially poor linearity and crossover point inaccuracy

4.  Reduction of the difficulty of the load presented to the power amplifier

5.   No padding is required to align the driver sensitivities, so we are not simply wasting power, and we can choose the speakers based on what we need

6.   The damping factor is greatly improved for both the low and midrange loudspeakers

7.  Complete freedom from any interaction between the loudspeaker driver (and its environment) and the crossover network

8.   Cost savings, since complex passive crossover networks are not needed.  And with a line array they are very complex.

9.  Tri-wiring is included free!

10.  The flexibility to choose amplifiers which are at their best within a defined frequency range--as I did for each section of the array

11.  Ability to match amplifier power to the exact requirements of the drivers for maximum overall efficiency

Hi :)  I'm brand new to this forum and love the opinions on active VS passive speakers.  For what its worth, I am listening to a pair of active Edifier R1700BT PC/desktop speakers (Annie Lennox "Into The West" 44/320k) that absolutely burn to the ground Andrew Jones ELACs in my living room running off a 100 W/8ohms Yamaha amp.
Imaging is outstanding.  Vocals are good enough to make one weep... damn these are clean.  A sub makes these perfect.  Purr-fect.

I think I paid $150 for the Edifiers off Amazon two years ago, and they have even better models available now. 

So although investing $10k in a pair of active mains might be scary as hell, the examples set by some of the least expensive, quality actives point to excellence. 

New to this forum also. After many years and tens of thousands of dollars on speakers and equipment, the one thing I learnt was that the room has the most impact on SQ. My hifi system has always been setup in the main living area of our home so all the family and friends can enjoy music. Acoustic treatment in living room spaces are very difficult to implement. About a year ago I came across a review of the Kii Threes and in reading up on active speakers came across the Dutch & Dutch 8c. A very accomodating retailer of both allowed me to demo them in my home at the same time. A long story short, I ended up selling my multi component, expensive cabling and huge speakers and purchasing the Kii Three. The D&D 8c and Kii Three were very similar, D&D slightly warmer and more low end, but I found I could tailor the Kii Three using the built in EQ & contour settings to suit my room and music listening enjoyment. The Kii Three won out mainly due to that my family and I preferred the look of them, they suited our decor and most importantly the Kii Control which D&D don’t currently have. Both the Kii Three and D&D 8c are very good at removing most of the room interactions and sound absolutely amazing. If your music listening takes place mainly in the main living area, you want to get the best SQ out of the room and you need ease of use for other family, either of these are worth considering.