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. 

You need not have DSP involved in an active speaker.  As examples, ATC and Linn have been making active speakers for years with no DSP, and having worked for a dealer who sold both I can tell you the active versions smoked their passive models and it wasn’t close.  Also, when you consider you’re getting all the amps along with the speakers it can actually be a bit of a bargain for the price.  The fact is there aren’t many good active consumer speakers available so your choices are severely limited and may not be as much to your tastes as one of the many more passive designs.  Personal taste trumps active vs. passive in my book. 

As to why there aren’t more active speakers available, I think it’s due to the flexibility of picking your own amp at your comfortable price point and also being able to upgrade in the future.  So you have both flexibility of sound characteristics as well as being able to spend less upfront with the option to improve your system later as funds allow.  But that’s just my guess.