Expensive active speakers are a hard sell outside of the studio. At home I already own amps, I don’t want to buy another packaged with a speaker. In a studio where space and time are limited a package makes a lot more sense.
Depending on the design, actives can be the fulfillment of design intent by an active crossover implementation + hand picked power amp sections, all in one box from the engineer.
In such a case, the engineer still lets you tweak your linestage, dac, phonostage, turntable, whatever all day long. He only took away your freedom of choice on the power amp. However, some audiophiliacs might think they know more than the guy who designed the stuff and have more tools in hand for execution. Hence, it’s a "hard sell’".
