Why are we so passive?

Flrnlamb, Most of the crossoverless types available are full range single driver type systems.. Using like Lowther, and Fostex drivers for example.. To get extreme lows or highs some systems will keep the important midband which is mostly the meat of the music and where most find music to fall apart or be its harshest or not detailed enough, and then simply add an active subwoofer, or even Tweeters to extend the range out further from the top or bottom.

Very few are that good, and the ones that are cost way more than most would enter into vs. buying a good 2000 to 5000 dollar amp seperate, and a pair of 6000 dollar speakers..= 11 k vs 15 grand plus pair of ATC's and have to run power cords, interconnects etc.. all over the room.. Not to say this is not fine, cause I would say many actives at the same price points of fine passives would be just as good, just not as conveinent and or normal to the standard thinking audio guy. So like anything else somebodys gotta take a back seat to the norm. even if in ways its superior.

Veroman
has anyone mentioned price? owning a nice amp and being able to upgrade spkrs w/o having to replace amp is a waste of $$."

Not sure, the statement seems like it is cancelling itself out..

But anyway, Active Tube speaker systems is fine, you put the amps on the rack, not in the speakers, again the reason some are very confused it seems.. You could turn any speaker you wish to be an active speaker if you wanted, you would have to get in them, disconnect the Passive crossovers completely and run direct to the drivers, and then of course have an electronic crossover capable of all the settings you would need in front of the amps.. Again this would not be a conventional or simple way, and is not necessarily the most cost effective, however can be done...

To Ojgalli, I believe we all missed what you asked, Ha, and its pretty funny.. To your question on are they gimmicks or marketing " NO " They are a completely different design than any Passive if they are a real active speaker, and I think it should be pointed out too, that most will think an active speaker is one with an amp built into it, much like a subwoofer.. Which is yes an active speaker, only cause it has an electronic Crossover/filter, not a passive " Inductor, Resistor, Capacitor " Network, but yes there are some passive sub's as well... A true active speaker has nothing to do with the fact the amp is internal, as a matter of fact most of the time this would be costly and worse due to the heat restrictions and vibration in a speaker cabinet..

For example a 3 way active speaker would need 3 electronic stereo crossovers, no passive, thats what makes it active, and also this would mean it must have 3 stereo channels of amplification as well opposed to one.. or like I stated a subwoofer is a single channel and is crossed over, but its not a full range speaker and would be still considered active, but only for low frequencys.

This is why its pretty expensive to do active is mostly in part to the extra channels of amplification needed for a full range speaker opposed to a sub, and the electronic crossovers all separated such as ATC's actives, which is a reason their actives are like double or 3 times I believe the cost of the passive versions ATC builds.. In a way I totally believe Actives are far better, Or sometimes even better no crossovers at all like in a single driver full range system can be even cheaper with amps just feeding an FRD directly.

So don't get confused ACTIVE SPEAKERS do not necessarily Have AMps built in only, they have much more hardware in the initial design of building Electronic crossovers that are Far less loss over a standard " Inductor, Resistor, Capacitor " Type Bread board crossover you are use to seeing built into a speaker, and Actives can have all this externally of the speaker or built in, so both ways is possible and does exist.. And its also important to remember a True Active speaker again for example a 3 way Will Have an Amplifier channel powering the tweeter by itself, the Midrange by itself, and the woofers by itself after already being processed by an Electronic Crossover to feed each one, which means you need 6 Channels of Electronic crossovers(3 stereo L & R), and 6 Channels of amplification, which should really answer your question I hope of why they are not as common, or why should they cost much more... Yes the passive Driver devices "speaker cones " and the cabinets they are built into is virtually the same, but it stops there, the processing and amplification of the speakers is completely different from a Passive speaker, if its a true active system.

I guess the point is there are SELF Powered speakers, commonly called Active, but are Not necessarily Active speakers in the true sense.. And then there are True Active Speakers…Which in most cases would be best done with external amps and external electronic crossovers, which again any speaker system essentially could be converted to be an Active system, The Generic word Active does not define " Internal power amps " as many seem to believe, Active means Electronic Filters and separate power channels for each driver.

So back to the first question, Why not build more "Self Powered" speakers is really what people seem to want… mainly cause the cost and quality is going to be worse in most cases than running a separate 2 channel or pair of Mono block amps on your rack… True Actives "Internally powered & filtered or externally powered " are a whole different ballgame is all people need to realize I guess.
I have a question are Meridian Speakers an active system? Or are they just passive crossovers with internal mono amps running all drivers?