Why are we so passive?

nailed it lush! mankind is always reinventing the wheel and calling it advancement and evolution! and kudos for using the term 'begs the question' correctly. tastes come and go but they are always relative and subjective. fwiw, the concept of evolution in general is very recent in the human experience. altho i do loves my xrcd's and dsd discs.

This article asks the same question:

http://www.modernhometheater.com/howto/powered_speakers/index.html

Audiogoner "Dlanselm" in describing his ATC active speakers in his virtual system states:

"ATC Anniversary 50's (Best "real world speaker"). These do not require $30,000 worth of amps. They have awesome tone and impact the Second best midrange of all speakers. However, they are not the last word in treble or bass response. They do bring electrostatic-like cohesiveness to drivers. They have awesome "tube like", or "music like" tonality in the midrange, not lush "tube like", think Vac PHI 300 or your own personal best tube reference. Then, imagine a very good solid state amp on the bass. Basically, you get great tone from top to bottom, with great image palpability and natural image size.

By far the best sonic value for the dollar, and a damn fine speaker and amp combo regardless of value. To beat them you would need to spend an ADDITIONAL minimum $40,000 on speakers, amps, and speaker cables."

Maybe it is not more expensive to do "active" after all.

FANTASTIC NEWS! we can now shut down this industry once and for all. should be no more than 6-8 mos before we have all replaced the second rate set ups we assembled. i never thought i would live this long, now if we can just reverse global warming within the next few weaks we really got it goin on. nothing like superlative to get my VISA card swiped. anybody with vintage mac amps ... i will pick up for $20 and travel fare.

Are you being sarcastic? :)

From my very small knowledge and experience base, it just seems obvious that there are just a lot of ways to skin the cat. It also seems obvious that active speakers are not a passing fad and may take a larger share of the market in the future. Wasn't that the question to start with?