Active or passive?

Active on the bass and good quality passive on the mids highs.
  
I've yet to hear an active xover (even discrete) better the sound of a good passive (>200hz) on the mids and highs of my ESL's, active's seem to sterilize the music. But on the bass 2 x 12" SV12(<200hz), definitely an active. Or on a 3 way box speaker.
 
If you have a two box speaker way then it's different as much of the mids are in the bass unit. I would just have a very good passive xover.

Cheers George 

with a passive system you can build incrementally as budget allows.

I ask because hardly anyone uses active...are most of these amps $hit...?!!

Passive: Simpler, no noise, no additional A/D, D/A stages.

Active: Greater control, higher efficiency, and a lot more parts in the way. Multiple amps, cables, and A/D, D/A + DSP in the way.