Opinions and recommendations on active loudspeakers

@gosta. Congrats on those Quested V3110s! They are certainly among the first rank of active studio monitors and, by all accounts, altogether the equal of the PSIs that I flog. Between their sound and @ 6½ stone (they're British, after all...) they'll undoubtedly put down roots in you listening room. Did you get the custom stands as well? Horizontal or vertical? And unless you're way into pipe organ music, a sub will be superfluous with those guys.

As you note, "huge spl capacity." That's one of the many virtues common to active monitors. With their tightly integrated amplifier designs, pretty much all of the better actives can crank the spl without compression until one hits their maximum, and essentially without the any danger of over-driving and harming the speaker. (Please don't feed them too much distortion or square waves, however...)

The coherence, transparency and just plain musicality of Questeds and the like can be truly amazing. Undoubtedly, my PSIs put an end to my search for "better."

Rock on!

ATC SCM 40 active with Isoacoustics Gaia II footers and yes I run them.  I’ve listed my full system here before so won’t now.  ATC is unbelievably solid.

@lp2cd 
Haha, nothing that fancy yet. Using a pair of trash cans in plastic as stands. Good to know there are custom made stands. Vertical position as I'm using the Questeds for mid-field listening. When I got used to them and integrated them well in my room (have the woofer adjustment on -9 db at the moment - a little much but there is just a big step from -3 db), I will play them against a pair of Unity Boulders mk2. And after that the main systems. Quested have a homogenity in their sound that is very nice. Everything sounds natural, handclaps, the cash register in Money etc.

Always been interested in the PSI monitors but only heard the A-17 model in a shop once. Didn't give me much impression but am sure they are very special. Would be very interesting if you had some words for them, e.g. why did you choose the A-21 model?

And do you happen to have something about the RCF Mytho monitors? Another not very well-known monitor that have some rave reviews. At least very good measurements. Would like to try the 6 model.

@gosta. Interesting. Those "trash can" stands may account for some "interesting" resonant bass interactions and effects. You may not need to spend the dime for Quested's stands, but something better should be a priority.

I've no special insights into either the Unity or or RCF monitors, altho I might expect the Unitys to at least play in the same league as the Questeds.

As for the PSIs, I use the A-21s as mastering monitors in a close near-field setup with a Focal CMS SUB taking the "flat" system response down to 32 Hz. They perform brilliantly. (I upgraded from Focal CMS 65s. Fine monitors, but they made everything sound too good. Great for casual listening...) The larger PSIs are for mid- or far-field listening. I've not listened to the other PSIs, but by all accounts they are as a family closely similar in sound. The A-17s would have undoubtedly worked fine for my purposes, too. PSIs are rather fussy about setup and positioning. I wouldn't expect any of them to stand out at all in a "shop" environment. PSIs tell the truth, they don't scream about themselves.

All good recommendations, above.  Now for something completely different:

You should probably go listen to a pair of Meridian speakers.  Everyone thinks of them for home theater but they can sound very, very good for music.  One of the best 2-channel rigs I ever heard was a Meridian 3-channel system for music.  I listened to a recording of Van Cliburn's Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 and it was sublime.  Absolutely the closest reproduction I have ever heard to a real concert hall.

The best part is that there is a ton of used Meridian stuff out there for sale.  Meridian gear tends to be well cared for and there is a healthy dealer network.