I Was Considering Active, Then I Watched This ...

Nitro is oldo?  So nothing matters but your brain...uh, no!  Anyway, I watched Steve again and I have to say, he is spot on.  Fools and young tone deaf rubes may beg to differ, but The Audiophiliac speaks truth!

Actives not for me after my experience with a powered sub.  Granted the sub is 13 years old, but it is a Paradigm Sub 12 that cost $2499 new.  Worked great until it just stopped.  Plugged into a surge protector and wired to a Marantz Pre/Pro that is still working fine.  My guess is that the amp or the board controlling the amp just quit.  Nothing much I can do to fix it.  Think about spending significant $$$ on a pair of actives-- and then the amp in the speaker stops working after a decade or so.  You OK with that?  Not me!

I used to be in the pro-actives camp until my own experience with them. I read all the great reviews and also lisetned to (sounded great) and bought the KEF LS50Ws but after having different issues with 3 (yes 3!) pairs of replacements I finally managed to get a full refund from the dealer.

While there is probably an advantage in that you get a properly matched amp and speaker in one system the downside of losing everything if something goes wrong is a huge negative, at least for me. It doesn't help that none of these speaker companies have any meaningful warranties on their active systems with 1 year being the norm (at least the ones that I know of). I was lucky my KEF LS50s had all the issues in the first year itself so could get replacements and finally the refund. 

"Fools and young tone deaf rubes may beg to differ, but The Audiophiliac speaks truth!" 

Don't forget the seniors with hearing loss who may be best suited for actives firing directly into the face. 

I'm holding out for a pair of active speakers with an internal amp, DAC, CD player that is also portable. Hey! My boom box in the garaurage does that.