Why are we so passive?

Really? alot of musicians don't know crap about good sound. Just look at all the photos of "artists" with the Yamaha NS-10's in the background... yeah like that's some kind of "reference"

Funny you should mention these. The NS-10's have almost a cult following. In the past, studio monitors were not reliably accurate...they were impressive but differed from studio to studio significantly...nobody could trust their mix and so the legend of the NS-10 was born. These very cheap crappy speakers simulate what most consumers have at home. In the past audio engineers relied on the NS-10's to check that their mix would translate well to a home audio system (i.e. for example it wouldn't blow up the speaker with too much LF or it would sound ok when played loud where most consumers speakers start to compress). This need became so prevalent (the problem of mix translating to cheap consumer gear) that some people just mixed or mastered straight to NS-10's.

As I mentioned, active speakers have largely caused the industry to converge on a much more accurate and consistent lab tested sound (for sure studio speakers still sound a little different from model to model but much less so than in the past). This has largely negated the need for NS-10's to test a mix.

Therefore, I don't think the NS-10 implies musicians know crap about sound - it was just a tool that worked well. After all musicians want their sound to translate as well as possible and compete with what else is out there. (Lately this has led to "CD loudness wars", which is a whole other topic where there is intentional destruction of sound quality by artists and producers)

I do agree with you that musicians are like the rest of us and there are varying degrees as to how much they care about sound. For example, INXS were so fanatical about sound that they had their own studio, Rhinocerous Sydney. Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour and several others are the same. Of course, having the luxury of your own high end studio means that you have already made it big, as a musician. Recently PC's and software are making home studios much more affordable and democratizing music production a little, for example Creed's big hit album was produced for only a few thousand dollars. However, high quality production is still pretty expensive and requires expertise and most musicians still rent everything and pay by the hour for experts.

Why do some high end speaker manufacturers insist on external crossovers?

Vibration!!!

They want it out of the box, and the same goes for amps as well.

Many of us like tube amps. They would not work well inside a speaker.

I own small Genelec powered monitors (and powered sub) for my video and audio mix suite. Genelecs (especially the new 8000 series) are considered some of the better powered pro monitors.

Their waveguide tweeter sounds very good and for a metal box the entire speaker is very coherent.

Do they compare with my Cerious Ceramic speakers and Atma-sphere OTL tube amps? No.

I'm not saying Active speakers are bad in any way, and I think for an all digital system, delivering signal digitally to speakers is a fantastic idea, where the D/A and amp is all inegral and has very short analog runs inside. Of course what do you do when D/A's become better or we get a new standard?

Because this hobby is less about sound and technical sense and more to do about personality, ego and self reflection through one's system.

{Genelec Actives} Do they compare with my Cerious Ceramic speakers and Atma-sphere OTL tube amps? No.

I bet they don't. Two very different sounds. Both are good but serve a different purpose. Active speakers are definitely not for everyone.

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.