Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

Entertaining thread! 

As usual when it starts with a silly premise.

secretguy you say silly premise, I'm assuming that you're talking about my statement that audiophiles are confused. If you have read a few other posts don't you agree there is a lot of disagreement. Designing speakers with amps and driver frequencies in mind is basic it's the bedrock of logical electronic design. Many people here don't even agree, smart people, we aren't dealing with fact here were dealing with emotions and subjective bias. Do you agree?

Hey @mijostyn  - I guess you're one of those guys who say an athlete can give 110%. Perfect is 100. You can't get better than that.

The 80/20 reasoning makes no sense as any system is only as good as its weakest link, and for a stereo system the source is the most important. Each step after that can only distort further. So if the 80/20 chooses 80 toward the end of the signal, he will have a very distorted sound. Even 80 at the front makes no sense. Why wouldn't you want to match the components synergistically to get the best sound possible within your pricing restraints? The point isn't "quick and easy".

I have an active system in my garage too. It's called a Bose Wave radio I listen to when I am washing my car, and one in my hand called an iPhone. For maximum convenience, sure, and maybe for home theater (notice how there is no mention of audio there) with lots of speakers it makes sense, but not my cup of tea for 2 channel high quality stereo systems (I don't use separate sub woofer boxes nor know much about them....perhaps it makes sense for them to be active?).

Going back to the OP’s point about confusion:

@mijostyn , great post but I did catch something that reveals that there is some confusion out there, you said. :

They are forced to use Class D amps for this reason and I have yet to hear a Class D amp I would purchase. Even Class AB amps if run hard are going to generate enough heat to make an active speaker very uncomfortable.

Kef LS60 amps-

The LS60 Wireless also has power in abundance, with a highly optimised mixture of bespoke Class AB and Class D amplification delivering a combined 1400 Watts of audiophile-grade power, with amplifiers dedicated to high, medium and low frequencies within each speaker.

Amplifier output power (per speaker)

LF: 500W
MF: 100W
HF: 100W

Amplifier class (per speaker)

LF: Class D
MF: Class D
HF: Class AB

@hollykumi , what a great post, I agree that I have moved my focus to the front end because the speaker/amp/room in my system is cohesive. One amazing thing I added recently was the iFi SPDIF iPurifier. About $200 and benefitted everything in terms or reducing jitter and increasing clarity. I'll have to look into the Schit Freya pre, thx.