Any thoughts on passive v. active speakers?

You've got a really nice amp you seem to like, and although going active has some practical and potentially sonic benefits you'd really be limiting your choices. Lots of great speakers you could pair your amp with, and I'll throw Joseph Audio, Reference 3A, and Vandersteen on the pile. I wouldn't sweat cables too much. With your amp and good speakers you'd have to try hard to make it sound bad. If you dread going to dealers for that stuff, places like Triode Wire Labs, Morrow, and Grover Huffman among others make good cables and offer generous trial periods where your arse would never need to leave the house. Anyway, best of luck.

"Next I'm going to throw my Braun L200s onto of my ADS810s and run them in parallel to get to 16 Ohms."

As Almarg pointed out, series rather than parallel connection will give you a nominal 16-ohm load (assuming the Braun and ADS are both 8-ohm loads).

One thing you need to be aware of: Unless the impedance curves of two speakers connected in series are very similar if not identical, their impedance curves will modulate one another's frequency response. I have designed speakers with series connection in mind, and the specifics of both speakers' impedance curves matter, FAR moreso than when paralleling speakers.

You don't have to go with expensive speakers to get really excellent sound from a system with MA-1s. Toss out a ballpark price range and see what bounces back. Or maybe run the question past the OTL forum over on Audio Asylum.

Duke

Putting the 810s & L200s in series brought new life into both speakers, but it needs a sub w/o a doubt.

Thanks to Almarg for pointing out my error before I wired in parallel, instead of in series. I've never wired in series before..hehe.

The Cary and the Atama-sphere are phenomenal and it's great to have them hooked up and going, even with such old speakers.

I think the smorgasbord is fun too - its what its all about!

I'm not sure if there IS an active speaker than can compete with high end tube gear, but some of the PMC studio monitors look like they could blow my house down when standing on their subs.

I haven't heard them, but wonder what these sound like:

http://pmc-speakers.com/products/professional/active/ib2s-xbd

Of course those Active Speakers are many times what my tube gear would cost when new.