Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

I have the same situation as @donavabdear , about 17 speakers in my HT most of which are active. I saved myself piles and piles of cash on speakers cables and external amplifiers PLUS get the benefit of active crossovers. The specs for my Paradigm Reference Active speakers are in my system profile. Each speaker is internally biamped. That is like 34 channels of amplification that I didn’t have to buy and setup separately. In a word, the most efficient use of an audiophiles budget is to save money using active speakers and use the money saved on room treatments, clean power, source components, and interconnects.

Dynaudio makes both types of speakers and they break it down in this article:

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Can you build a great, 2 channel hifi system going active?

These speakers will do everything. You don’t need to lift a finger other then to select the song you want to play. No way you can get the same SQ with the same budget going the traditional route:

Read more here:

Can you also build a best in class home theater going active?

Duh, only if you want world class, this is what they use in private screening rooms at the movie studios.:

https://www.meyersound.com/focus/residential_cinema/

If you like to tinker, great. Tinker with the front end. But why tinker matching amps, drivers, and speaker cables when the engineer who DESIGNED the speaker can do it for you at a much lower cost?

OP, powered speakers show "audiophiles" are a bit confused and that isn’t all their fault. If you are an audio dealer which customer would you prefer, the one upgrading constantly or the customer that is one and done? I think the industry took the more profitable route and created the conditions that caused the confusion. Thankfully companies like Dynaudio, KEF, JBL, etc. are now trying to provide both products and education to remedy the confusion.

I don't think there are really any issues, here, but I have no problems with what anyone believes is a great system. We all have different hearing curves and qualities of attention (the latter can change at any given moment). We all have different means ($$$ that we can dedicate to audio) and different patterning over the years - based on the aforementioned elements as well as the types of music we listen to.

I went from separates and tinkering to an active system (as opposed to simply active speakers) quite a while ago; I've stuck with Meridian gear as much as possible because the system design made so much sense and the sound (relative to the recording qualities) is always "alive" for me - so I don't tinker much anymore (I've no real desire to even experiment with any kind of spatial audio beyond the simple 5.1 system, as I don't watch much in the way of video), which puts me in that category of just loving the music for its own sake.

No big revelations, here, but I enjoy reading about everyone's questioning and experimentation. Whether you've got the system you'll stay with for life or are likely to work for its continuing evolution, I don't see any reason for ego trips; you can't compare subjective results ... just enjoy.

Rich