Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

One point of confusion is that most active speakers sold today use a portion of their box inner volume for housing amplifiers. The percentage of thus used up volume may range from 10% to 50%, depending on size of the speaker, number of transducers, amp technology etc.

Thus, an active speaker of a certain external volume may acoustically behave like a passive speaker of a smaller volume.

This may translate into higher level of distortions at a given output level exhibited by an active speaker, compared to a passive speaker of the same external volume.

This may also translate into the active speaker going less deep in -3db frequency than its external volume would suggest.

Rules of thumb for traditionally proportioned speakers:

Active speakers with a woofer less than 6" tend to be unsatisfactory in many respects, despite the fact that they may sound superficially well.

Active studio monitors with 8" woofers tend to sound comparably to passive speakers with 6 1/2" woofers, on the measures of distortions and bass extension.

Active studio monitors with 10" woofers usually sound wonderful, especially if they are three-way.

Active studio monitors with 12" woofers tend to rival the best audiophile passive speakers out there.

Yet another point of confusion is that the range of sound quality provided by active speakers, at this time, is significantly wider, and the choices offered are significanlty more diverse, than that of still surviving passive speakers.

Lower end passive speakers are all but pushed away by active Bluetooth boomboxes. You can still find small passives at garage sales etc., yet it doesn't appear anyone in industry is investing serious money in further developing or marketing them.

High end passives are still going strong, especially in the used market. Moreover, pinnacles of large highest-quality passives took on qualities of antique art - their resale values just keep growing year to year.

The actives range from what used to be small cheap passives, with small cheap amps crammed into their boxes without much forethought, to ingenuously designed and carefully assembled dedicated high-end models.

Cheap actives tend to use insufficiently sized power supplies, dubious thermal management, and cheap highly-distorting transducers. Correspondingly, they don't sound all that good, and don't last for long either.

High-end actives may use literally same or very similar transducers that the best passives have. Their power supplies, thermal management, and amplification stages are all done right. Those sound great, and can last for a long long time.

And then we have this area in the middle of actives market, which is the most confusing.

There could be seemingly well-made and relatively expensive three way active systems sounding like crap. And there could be inexpensive two-ways that are just ridiculously accurate.

There could be inexpensive active speakers that virtually never fail, while being toured for decades. And shiny new expensive ones, even from reputable brands, which reliably fail within few months.

By the way, "sounding like crap" could be either an opportunistic market grab by a fly-by-night company making a quick buck reselling cheap Chinese gear with 100% markup, or by design.

"By design" is meant to be distorting just below the threshold of being noticeable. Then even a smallest additional distortion of unpleasant nature - typically caused by a recording or mixing mistake - will jump out at the sound engineer. Which is what's desired in this tool.

So, a buyer of an active speaker ought to be aware of just as many nuances, in the speakers alone, as an audiophile needs to know about the ADC, DAC, DSP, amplifiers, and passive speakers.

I mentioned ADC, DAC, and DSP because some of the active speakers use them internally. A limited number of them use high-quality components, careful design, and well-written software. Most others are ... well, if you can't say anything good, don't say anything :)

@kota1

I have an outrageous, inexpensive bargain for you that is NOT cheap garbage and around $600 for an entire system, speakers, amps, dac, ARC room correction, and a streamer. It is all built into the speakers, no boxes, no problem. Basically plug and play:

But the PW system excelled when I used the two PW 600s as a stereo pair. This can be easily set up in DTS Play-Fi, but you have to remove them from surround-sound mode. Configured as a stereo pair, the PW 600s sounded outstanding, easily rivaling separate speakers and electronics costing many times their $1198/pair price.

Thank you for the reference, but those are not for me. I already use Neumann KH-310 for similar duties. I consider this Neumann an example of a properly designed and well-made mid-level studio monitor of low-distorting variety.

As to the PW600s, I couldn't find their measurements. Yet I'm not excited about a speaker with 5" woofer, in such a small box.

My guess would be that PW600 natural roll-off starts somewhere between 100Hz and 120Hz. Yet this is compensated for by its internal DSP, so the bass seemingly extends down to ~40 Hz instead.

I wouldn't expect PW600 to be low-distorting. There is a price to pay for a small transducer being driven hard by a powerful D-class amplifier. Intermodulation distortions ought to be significant.

Contrast this with the KH-310, which meaningfully extends down to 34Hz, even without DSP. Also, its manufacturer publishes detailed measurements, which are confirmed by independent reviewers.

Distortions-wise, the KH-310 measures and sounds similarly to good professional headphones. This studio monitor is quite popular for professional studio mixing, including multi-channel, especially in Europe.

As to my aspirations, one day I'd like to own a pair of Neumann KH-420 or 
ATC SCM100ASL Pro as an upgrade to the KH-310.

For kitchen duty, I used to use all-white Yamaha HS8. Then they migrated to my daughter's electronic piano installation. I'm not aware of a better sound-quality bang for a street price buck in active speakers.

Interestingly enough, I keep encountering the HS8s in professional studios, owners of which could easily afford much more expensive monitors. HS8s are just uncannily accurate, in an easy to live with format, and virtually never fail.