Several notes:
1) Active speakers (monitors) such as most of the higher-end ones being discussed here are by in large no-nonsense and demanding professional tools. Not only are they not designed to be eye-catching and decorative, as a class they must needs be ruthlessly revealing yet highly listenable at the same time. Thus, they are very apt to tell one everything that’s wrong (or right!) with what comes before them, from recording technique, to mastering, to one’s electronics, to their position and placement in the room (studio). If they don’t sound good to you, it’s very likely that the problem lies elsewhere, including what one expects or is accustomed to. Best possible program material and kit is a given.
2) Well-designed, especially higher-end, active speakers are a highly integrated system. The physical design, the amplification, and the drivers are all rigorously designed to work specifically with the other components in the speaker. Moreover, actives work with either a line-level or a *digital* input (see below). The result is a remarkable degree of flexibility in design throughout. That’s profoundly different from a passive system where the input is an already fully amplified signal. The passive design has to be substantially generic, and try to both accommodate the quirks of an unknown amplifier and crossover the high-powered input to the sundry drivers. That’s challenging and expensive to do well, and it actually allows for less flexibility in design.
3) Active monitors fall into two categories, analog and DSP. The difference is rather obvious. The older, analog, approach is just that, the input signal remains analog throughout the processing, amplification, and reproduction chain. The analog processing, however, can be and often is highly sophisticated. PSI, Questeds, and others, are excellent examples. The DSP monitors are newer and typically rely on digital wizardry to achieve their often remarkable sonic results. Kii three’s, D&D’s, and several others are the hot new guys on the block.
Overall, both types have their merits and, to some degree, drawbacks. Analog monitors only accept a line-level analog input, and then have an assortment of level and EQ controls available (on the back). That makes driving them and setting them up rather straightforward.
DSP monitors will ordinarily accept an analog input, but often also accept, and generally prefer, a digital input, usually @ 96kHz. Even an analog input will be converted to digital for processing. The result can be amazing sound, but the setup and configuration, even the volume control, can also be challenging and complex.
Your choice.
