Pros and Cons of built-in amps?

You know, you can get all the benefits and none of the downsides of active speakers in other ways - either an active crossover or no crossover.

The big problem with active speakers is that any one that has decent bass response is going to be shaking the crap out of its amps. That is, you know, real bad for sonics.

To Paul: What about soundwaves traveling through air or floor hitting the tubes in free standing amplifiers? I do not detect any evidence of "shaking" electronics, Doppler distortion or distortion of any kind in the PMC AML-1's. I would assume any design requires proper implementation to succeed. Audiophiles just will not give an active speaker system a chance. Could it be that it is not about the music, as they are fond of saying, but the new equipment of the month that they are so passionate about? Find a PMC dealer. Listen to a properly broken in pair. Then fairly criticize if you can.

Usarrn,

The thing is those vibration sources can be and typically are taken care of. That's why we spend money on good racks and isolation platforms.

You certainly are not going to "detect" obvious things like doppler distortion or obvious effects of vibration, but they are going to be there, as anybody who's ever experimented with vibration control will tell you. It tends to affect about everything.

Inside the speaker itself is going to be the worst source of vibration. Even moving the crossover outside of the speaker pays dividends, which is why some manufacturers do it, and now we're just talking about a few caps and coils.

There's nothing at all wrong with active speakers, but the point is they come with trade-offs, like most things in audio. They're not, IMO, a stroke of genius and not the wave of the future. All of this also assumes that you buy into the mantra that digital amps are "just fine" and amplifiers don't really having any bearing on sound quality.

If you happen to be into open baffles, it's not so easy to make them active anyway. :) Well, there's duck tape...

the obvious disadvatage is removing freedom of choice. i don't a manufacturer dictating what amp i should use.
it is a foolish marketing strategy.