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

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 this is why they are feeling and not reality or informed opinion.

When you talk about rudimentary things like crossovers, then you are already 5 years behind, and certainly not looking to the future.

"There are no drivers made, that do not have 'problem' frequencies within their passband, that need to be compensated for.

And passive speakers will never be able to compensate for this. Active will.

I found that my new Logitech active computer speakers ($20) vastly outperform my previous Insignia passive computer speakers (price unknown, as bundled with ancient computer)!    ;) 

I picked a very nice first video to watch as test:

World's Largest Devil's Toothpaste Explosion - YouTube

Although way out of my price range, this is an interesting take on active vs passive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkeIanGsKYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms0WLy7dAlk

"Good enough" (a plateau by any measure): active

Inveterate tweaker looking for the best (’peak audio’): passive

It’s a really simple equation, in the end (with all the data points on the analysis table).

Actually, it's a very tight race between the Dell laptop and the non-powered Insignia speakers and the Lenovo unit with the Logitech actives!   ;)