Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

Better powered speakers do indeed utilize specific amps for specific drivers with the crossover before the amps rather than after. With that said, I'm not a fan of powered monitors.

Heads up (on powered speakers): there is currently a Black Friday sale on Sonos speakers at 20% off. Example: Sonos Arc sound bar is now $719

lonemountain and ghasley great examples. Here's what we need to consider, we all know designing amps for specific speakers and visa versa is probably the best leap forward in sound quality. 

But:
We need to understand psychoacoustics and the huge placebo effect that we experience in the audiophile community.
We need to understand known quantities like the near elimination of speaker cables that are inherent in active speakers are real. We know that preamps are between the source and the amp so they are filters wether we think so or not, filters are distortion. We need to be able to justify active speakers and vibration dampening in the amplifier, we know there is active incoherent logic that is so obvious in that illustration.

Great post, Brad. 

jerryg123 your post reminds me of a continual conversation with a friend who worked at a vintage guitar store. This guy knows practically every guitar setup for every band you can imagine, he sells rare guitars to very rich musicians all the time. I would always argue with him saying how do you justify selling a 100k guitar to someone then run it through some raunchy guitar amp and still live with yourself. He would say it’s rock n roll man. I knew what he meant but that answer doesn’t square with buying a 100k vintage guitar for its amazing sound. That’s where super cool 2 channel systems in our world are the same they are not accurate but they sound super cool.