Your thoughts on active loudspeakers

The first significant players in active were Genelec and ATC. ATC is about 50/50 pro and consumer and Genelec historically was focused on pro. In consumer Linn and Meridian did some good work. In pro, additional players got involved as the business evolved. Now you see price driving some active speaker development in both markets as its possible to integrate cheap parts including little modular Class D amps into small affordable speaker "packages".

Since active is so poorly understood, especially in consumer were many still think its just a "powered" speaker, support (sales) for it in consumer specifically has been weak. I think its finally growing now, as the science is becoming clear to many. There just aren't that many active models in consumer and many manufacturers are avoiding it entirely as it requires significant additional engineering support.  In pro, active completely dominates the speaker [monitor] business close to 99%. There's a couple of big passive monitors still sold (like Augsperger designs and Westlake) and a very small number of low cost monitors.  New pro passives are very hard to find and don’t sell well unless the pro user is very budget driven.
Brad

Fiesta 75
It makes so much sense to take all that wire and inductors out of the signal flow to the speakers.  With so much focus on speaker cables, I wonder how many people realize how much wire is part of a large air core inductor used for LF crossovers?  Then all that after the amplifier at speaker level? That will seem so ancient in 20 years time.  And yes, no reason you cannot use your own amps if you can get the crossover right and the power right..    
Brad 

Georgehifi
"Active xover for the bass yes for me. But not for the mids/highs, they always sound "etched" and loose their "musical ease", become in your face."

HI George
Sure don't agree with this statement at all.  That description would fit only a high distortion system, not an active one!  There is nothing in active (as a process) that would cause what you are saying to happen.  Active REMOVES distortion generating devices in the signal path.  Every A/B I've ever done proves again and again that same exact speaker, same exact amplifiers, active means imaging is better, fine details more clear, resolution is higher.     

Brad

I think the number one reason commercially available actives lack consumer appeal is the lack of "amp upgradeability". Phusis is talking about the future when you can set your active system yourself, choose your crossover points and amplifiers. I know that with active the preamps, cables, sources, etc  all become much more audible and fun to change out.  The degree of change from these front end changes with a high performance active are more noticeable due to the increased resolution that reveals these audible changes.  I am convinced the audiophile in an active world will be turning their focus to the front end, swapping these parts and pieces and have just as much fun in doing so as they did with amps. From a scientific perspective the obsession with amps driving this hunk of lossy wire and passive parts, that reduce control and efficiency, isolated from the drivers, will be looked back upon as so "I can believe we used to do that".
Brad

HI Georgehifi
I have no doubt you experienced what you say as I can see you have written a enthusiastic response.  AS one who's been in audio a lifetime, I have been completely convinced by a demo I discovered later was a flawed.  I too have heard some crossovers I do not like, especially the digital kind.  I do believe digital DSP can be neutral, Weiss is a good example but its SO expensive.   I also believe Class D can be good, example is Theta Digital, also quite pricey.    

The science on this is quite clear: the passive arrangement introduces a large array of significant artifacts, all measurable and audible.  Active also has some artifacts, but far fewer and more difficult to measure and hear.  The reduction of audible errors in total is the goal of properly executed active design.  Its a holistic design approach if you will.  Solve the biggest issues first and then work to get the rest down.  Distortion is the enemy, and once inside the driver, whether created by the driver itself or what comes before is impossible to remove.  How about we prevent its creation?  The speaker company I'm associated with pursues this goal though engineering in every move they make.         

DSP is not an inevitable "must have" part of an active design.  Well executed actives are available that are 100% analog, input to speaker output, with high end discrete variants available for those with bigger budgets.   

Brad