Active Speakers: The usual suspects ....

I believe you are saying the same thing. I am going back and forth between the Focal, DigiDesign, and possibly one of the baby PMC monitors.

Yes I am saying - that you should not base your decision on the active filter design (Digital or analog active) - BOTH can be excellent - so just choose what speaker rocks your boat.

The other factors in speaker design will be far far more important than this particular point - also be careful - picking up any active speaker is NOT likely to automatically be better than a good passive one - there are a great many fantastic sounding passive speakers as well as all too many poor sounding cheap active speakers targeted for low cost PC based mini home studios market - so whatever you do - LET YOUR EARS DECIDE.

Not only shouldn't we confuse powered speakers with active, we shouldn't assume all active speakers are powered. The ones I referred to above all have external x/o and amp. Although one should probably stick with the prescribed x/o, the amps are up to you. Many people criticize active speakers for having built-in amps, their reasons vary. I'm not sure whether it matters, but I can see the benefits of external.

Many people criticize active speakers for having built-in amps, their reasons vary. I'm not sure whether it matters, but I can see the benefits of external.

Internal amps can suffer from microphonics - it requires choosing components and gain designs that are not microphonic (not that difficult). A tube amplifier stage, for example, would be a problem in a speaker. Some potentiometers and caps can be microphonic too. Single box guitar amp/speaker with tubes are well known for this issue - some guitar players insist to have the amp separate. Pink Floyd puts tube amps in an entirely separate room from the speakers. Active speakers started in studios with the amps separate from each driver in an air cooled amp rack. I believe they only migrated into the actual speaker box in the past 25 years or so...initially it was for portability. It certainly limits one to SS amps....

I own the Focal Twin 6's. I use them in my recording studio, but recently had them in my living room form a while. They sound great and have plenty of low end for smaller rooms.