Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

@thespeakerdude That's why groups like the AES exists to set up standards and practices so the music industry and the film industry will be sustainable. it really is amazing how consistent music and films actually are. To audiophiles with expensive systems it's amazing any music sounds good at all. In a perfect world the studios would use perfect equipment with perfectly consistent practices but we all know that is impossible. Studios do spend millions on equipment and hopefully will keep quality as high as possible and that will translate all the way down to us. There is nothing creative about standard practices but both can live together.

@thespeakerdude ​wrote:

Careless? Not at all. Crude only in a comparative sense. I don’t think you are understanding the variables that are available though for active speaker implementation.

I know enough to be able to get a great sounding outboard active system with nothing imposed with regard to physical restrictions of speakers. Yours is a business venture with all that entails.

I don’t expect a hobby implementation to compete with a large R&D budget so don’t take offense.

Please let me know about the basic outlay of your (possible range of) speakers, and then we’ll take it from there. Or is that a secret as well? Sounds more like hiding to me, as well as some hollow flaunting a prowess that’s really about trying to make up for what’s likely a physically restricted package and make it appear as if you’re holding the holy grail of audio reproduction - not an atypical position coming from a MFR.

@fred60 wrote:

Ask ATC how much it costs to repair and/or replace the internal amp in a speaker. Or any brand. My Paradigm (great brand btw) subwoofer internal amp died after a decade. It was in auto/on mode for most of its short life. I paid $2500 for it. Paradigm wanted $1750 to replace/repair the internal amp in the sub. I laughed at that. Going to replace it with a REL HT-1205 for $699. My Audio Engine desktop speakers also died after a decade of service. I paid $250 for them, they offered me a 30% discount on buying the next pair. Instead I bought an inexpensive pair of PreSonus speakers, which sound great.

My guess is that ATC would charge quite a bit of cash to repair a blown amp in one of their speakers. Why take the chance that this happens at all? I’d be petrified that one day I wake up to find that one of the speakers isn’t working. Passives you never have that problem, unless you mistakenly blow out a tweeter. I’ve never had that happen over decades of listening. BTW--I’m not against the idea of active speakers, just my take. I have a pair of JL Audio’s for my main rig. Cheers.

ATC speakers are as bomb proof as they come, as well as being the overall best bundled active speakers I’ve heard (certainly the largest models). It’s not a fair comparison with the other brands you mention - to ATC, that is. Indeed I’d feel more secure using active ATC speakers that most any passive setup, and if any issue should occur with the ATC speakers you’d be given a great treatment and service that’s also a very reasonable reflection price-wise relative to the product at hand.

@ghdprentice Wow that is an amazing headphone setup, I lived 14 hrs a day with my headphones on working on films for 35 years and came to the conclusion that your brain fills in so much of the gaps in just a few hours of listening. I have the Stellia because I wanted closed back but I think I regret that choice also. Please tell me about your DAC and amp setup. Thank you so much.

In the rare instance, should active ATC electronics fail, an ATC dealer will remove the amp pack from the speaker and ship only that to their NV facility. Turn around time is very rapid.

@brianlucey , As I said before, the enjoyment of music, music itself is a totally separate issue from the science of sound reproduction. Sound reproduction is not a matter of taste. Amplitude response is important and if you look at my system page you will notice that we agree on target curves. I intentionally put a " bump" in the low end and the high frequencies are rolled off depending on the dynamic loudness curve in use at the specific volume. I think where you and a lot of sound engineers have trouble is with casting a realistic image. I mentioned specific errors before. These are mixing errors which are unfortunately common with multitrack recordings that have instruments and voices added at separate recording sessions frequently in totally different environments. It in no way sounds like you are listening to a band on a stage or in a room. This can be intentional for artistic reasons but most of the time it is not. I am not and do not pretend to be  recording engineer, but I am an extremely experienced listener as are many of us. Yes, I am perfectionistic. In my head there is only one way to do things, the right way. There can always be several right ways. To make the furnisher I make you have to be perfectionistic or you produce garbage. 

As for my enjoyment of music, that is really none of your business and not the point of this forum. I find it interesting that you are dictating to me how much I do not enjoy music. Can you climb into everyone's head like that?