It’s a compromise to have active speakers and is technology mostly embraced by the professional audio sound people. They listen for frequencies, not tonal shadings or micro dynamics...certainly not for the differences in instrument voicing or spatial imaging. All of us have goals in what we hope to achieve in our systems. If having active speakers and DSP lights your fire and attains your personal goals, then congratulations!! Some of us want to hear the sweet rosin flaking off the bow of Bell’s violin as he digs in for the climax, or the burnished breathy whiskey colored texture of a Coltrane sax solo. So many colors exist for those willing to explore the jagged landscape of high end audio...I’ll choose my own amplifier.
I think this nailed my feelings on the subject.
Active speakers and DSP can nail frequency response. Ruler flat.
But just based on being active and using DSP, does not address the type of subtleties that speakers and various amp combos are capable of.
And active crossovers are not the panacea that many believe they are. Even if one gets the: slopes, frequency of cutoff, type of filter used, etc optimized, that does nothing to adjust for issues within the operating band of individual drives. There are no drivers made, that do not have 'problem' frequencies within their passband, that need to be compensated for.
There may be a budget range in which active speakers may get one the best sound for the money, but the best currently are passive speakers with outboard amps.
As someone else already stated, I've been going to audio shows for a long time, and with only a very few exceptions, passive speakers consistently make my best list, in almost every budget level.