Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused


17 of 23 speakers in my studio and home theater systems are internally powered. My studio system is all Genelec and sounds very accurate. I know the best new concert and studio speakers are internally powered there are great technical reasons to design a speaker and an amp synergistically, this concept is much more important to sound quality than the vibration systems we often buy. How can an audiophile justify a vibration system of any sort with this in mind.

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Showing 5 responses by fred60

@lone mountain

Wrong.  You are comparing Class A amps vs most internal speaker amps that are Class D.  Class D amps are not repairable.  ATC might be an exception (not Class D?  I don't know), but you don't answer the question: how much would ATC charge to repair an amplifier inside one of their 25K per pair speakers?

 

 

 

Why I will never buy another active speaker: My $2500 sub with massive D-class amp inside, died after a decade of service.  There is no practical way to repair a D-class amp.  Sorry, but if I were to spend any amount of money on a speaker, I would expect it to last more than a decade.  It should last decades.

Anyone who buys an active speaker should expect it to die within a decade.

That's why I will never buy another active speaker again.

Simple.

You can wax all day long how actives are better than passives, but who cares.

Unless you are willing to kiss the speaker good-bye after a decade.

I'm not willing to do that.

 

Most active speakers have Class D amps inside them.

Class D amps are basically unrepairable.

The dealer will not repair nor will any manufacturer.

Again, that's why I will never buy an active speaker.

If anyone has a different experience, I'd love to hear it.

 

 

@kota1

Ask ATC how much it costs to repair and/or replace the internal amp in a speaker. Or any brand. My Paradigm (great brand btw) subwoofer internal amp died after a decade. It was in auto/on mode for most of its short life. I paid $2500 for it. Paradigm wanted $1750 to replace/repair the internal amp in the sub. I laughed at that. Going to replace it with a REL HT-1205 for $699. My Audio Engine desktop speakers also died after a decade of service. I paid $250 for them, they offered me a 30% discount on buying the next pair. Instead I bought an inexpensive pair of PreSonus speakers, which sound great.

My guess is that ATC would charge quite a bit of cash to repair a blown amp in one of their speakers. Why take the chance that this happens at all? I’d be petrified that one day I wake up to find that one of the speakers isn’t working. Passives you never have that problem, unless you mistakenly blow out a tweeter. I’ve never had that happen over decades of listening. BTW--I’m not against the idea of active speakers, just my take. I have a pair of JL Audio’s for my main rig. Cheers.