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@mijostyn  - not sure what you are responding to with your batteries statement. Also you didn't answer my question about what % of the time you listen to digital vs. records.

@kingharold great story, I’m sure there was a lot of frustration, so glad you hung in there over all that time.

@lonemountain great post and you are right it is important to keep the signal the same level as best you can, doing crossover work at speaker level is silly everyone knows it, reason # 847 why speakers and amps need to be made for each other. Funny how right you are no one mentioned the many reasons why working on the signal after the amplifier is definitely suboptimal.

@kingharold +10, my hats off to you, you curated the entire chain, even the programming support from DEQX until you got what you wanted.

@lonemountain +10, great post and having owned both reference level passive and active speakers you can definitely hear the difference it makes without a crossover at speaker level, I especially notice it on very dynamic content listening at loud levels. No strain, no compression as you start to crank it, my active speakers kick in and just run full throttle without a complaint. I imagine that's another reason they like them in the studio.

@brianlucey , first of all let's get this straight,  music and sound reproduction are two entirely separate subjects. I can love music on a table radio. Accurate reproduction is accurate or it is not. A 20 foot wide piano is not accurate. A guitar right in front of you and the voice of the guitarist 30 yards away is not accurate. There are innumerable surrealisms created by bad mastering and engineering which is what makes the really talented engineers shine. What is the difference between a bad recording and a great one? Are you trying to tell me there are no bad recordings? 

Do me a favor. Please do not feel sorry for me. I do not deserve it. Save it for someone who really needs it. 

@sokogear , Stressless chairs can now be ordered with battery power supplies. They do not need to be plugged in which is really nice if you have three of them. You charge them up every 3-4 months. For serious listening I would say about 50/50 digital/analog. In the shop it is 100% digital for obvious reasons.