Intriguing inquiry, are floor-stand speakers always better than active speakers?

I do miss millercarbon's input.

Personally I prefer separates and I don't like to idea of being stuck with a speaker manufacturer's choice of amplifier.

@preston8452 - yeah I’d read that about it being available for the Raspberry Pi.

It’s just that my hardware is possibly better than the Silent Angel hardware, and I have already got it.

8Watt Intel dual core commercial integrated CPU on mainboard, Jcat Femto USB card, HD Plex 200Watt linear power supply (separate runs for mainboard, SSDs, and USB card), Fanless case with copper heat pipes. Now I don’t know which is better, obviously, I haven’t heard it. But the OS, man that’s got me fully interested.

@rixthetrick 

Haha that sounds indeed fantastic, the only to find out is to give it a try haha, maybe you can contact their local distributor and ask if they can lend u an unit to do some comparisons or something.

I don't think one type is better than the other, there are good and less god implementations of both types. I recently heard the Cabasse Pearl line and the middle in the range costs around $4k, is active like the rest and uses class D amps inside. They don't need a dac, just add a streamer. 

They are round, like fotballs (the soccer variant) and sounded good. I will not exchange my current setup in the similar price range but others might find them perfect. Bass and dynamics was impressive. 

I also got to listen to the top of the line syste  costing around $30k, a big jump up. They sounded amazing, voices were very clear and nicely positioned in 3d. Dynamics was just fantastic, I almost jumped out of the couch when the first real drum note was struck. I still can't say if I would buy this system rather then separates for the same price but I don't think it was an easy decision anymore. Active speakers with class d amps have improved. 

Here is a review with some pictures of the Cabasse Pearl Akoya, the middle in the line.