I've tried digital eq, active, etc. and my favorite system is my Thiel 3.7s with some moderately priced but high powered ab amps, a bryston analog preamp and benchmark dac2. I think my second favorite is turning out to be an old system I've got about 2k in. Old Creek integrated, Thiel Viewpoints, and a $200 dac. I enjoy music through it. I've tried a bunch of other things. They might have measured better. I've got some really expensive active speakers that I got crazy cheap because audiophiles are slow. I love them. They have amazing dynamics, extremely low distortion, are fantastic. But I don't enjoy music as much through them. They excel with movies. For music I'll take any first order Thiel over anything else.
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.