Why are hi-end active monitors not more popular?

I had a pair of ATC active 150's (half again the volume of the large 100's). they were spectacular, but I bought them used unheard, unseen, and they were too large for my room (and my room ain't small....15.25 x 23 x 10). My room doubles as a HD-based 110" home theater, and the sheer size of the 150's was too much for the scale of the room.

ATC active speakers are absolutely audiophile-grade transducers. Their midrange is legendary and they produce microdetail, harmonics and imaging that are out of this world. If I hadn't found great passive speakers in the meantime I would have gone with ATC SCM100ASL's for my mains (and Active 50's for surrounds). One problem: finding large ATC actives used is a pain, but new they are huge$$, even taking into account they cover both amp and speaker budget. The advantages of actives have been discussed here, but are clearly the near-perfect amp-driver integration, the dedicated crossover-amp synergy, and the convenience factors afforded by lack of speaker cables, etc. The results are quite evident; the linearity and "wholeness" of sound is astounding.

I HIGHLY recommend anyone searching for active speakers to go listen to ATC's big boys, the 50's on up. You will have an opinion, no doubt.

Just a general comment. I can see the advantages of a speaker being designed with a particular amp in mind. However, I fail to see any advantage of housing them in the same cabinet.

So the case to be made is not for the amp and the speakers to come glued together, :-) but for the manufacturers to offer matching sets. In a way, that's what Quad has been doing for a long time.

Aktchi

You need to go bsck earlier in the thread - I list the pros.

Active speakers is not the same as putting a single passive amp in a box. For example the Woofer will be driven by a separate amp of say 275 watts, the mid range is driven with a separate amp of 100 watts and the tweeter is driven by a separate amp of 50 watts.

There is no power loss in a crossover (these get hot).
There is way less IMD distortion (the worst kind of distortion and most audible) because different frequency ranges are driven by completely separate circuits instead of one amp connected to as many as three drivers and two crossovers covering 20 to 20,000 Hz (which all interact and feedback into eachother). You can precisely control phase and driver integration way better than using passive cross overs.

There is a difference - it ain't simple moving the external power amp and placing it in the box.