Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

@kota1 It is not a contest. It is about achieving the ultimate sound. It's not about achieving tolerable or OK sound. I have owned and listened to every type of speaker driver made. I even had access to a set of Hills Plasmatronics  for a month, nitrogen tanks included. I have the sound I am looking for in my head and I know the path to that sound as I have been on it for close to 40 years since I got my first pair of ESLs in 1979 , Acoustat X's which were active speakers by the way! They had their own special high voltage amps in back. The problem for Active speaker designers is that the room is an integral part of the system. You have to be able to measure the speaker in the room and have a means to respond to the discrepancies. The only other path to the absolute sound is shear luck. Using Room control for the bass only is not good enough. You have to use it full frequency. Then you have to make sure the frequency response of both channels is exactly the same or imaging will suffer. No two speakers are exactly alike. When you place them in different locations they can become vastly different. This is why the speakers have to be tested in place. There are some products that do this, it is becoming more popular in subwoofers. The very best way is to get your own USB measurement mic and the right computer programming. But, you have to be able to respond to amplitude errors and group delays. Without digital signal processing you are stuck with acoustic treatments and wishful thinking. However it is important to note that DSP has it's limits and appropriate room acoustic management remains very important.  

@mijostyn , we are in complete agreement on your last post. I have an all out system in my HT, and "good enough" systems in other rooms all connected via DTS Play-Fi app. I wish more people that bought receivers/preamps with DSP understood that they are limited in what they can do. Even the head panther at ASR eschews acoustic treatments. Why bother dropping big money on components and then choking them in all that reflected sound bouncing uncotrollably around?

@rudyb , WOW, congrats, that looks like a great system and love how they built in an upgrade path. Have you tried after market power cords yet?

Together with the built-in amplifiers and digital signal processors, the powerful woofers operate down to 17 Hz. This is not possible for traditional loudspeakers.

They must bring the thunder and have built in DSP to dial all that bass into the room, sweet!

@mijostyn

You have been at this a while! I too have listened to Hill Plasmatronics and they were amazing.  I've heard almost every Accustat, Maggies, KEF, Dahlquists, Time Windows, Advents, double stacked advents, and a LOT of conventional speakers. I ran a high end store in the late 70s, then was a hi fi rep out of Chicago in the 80s.  

You say "The problem for Active speaker designers is that the room is an integral part of the system."   This is the problem for EVERY speaker designer, active passive or any design between.  This is the mystery sauce behind so many radically different opinions/posts about a given model or brand: "I tried that, it was awful", then "Hey-I own that, it's marvelous".  It's all about the room, making a speaker wonderful and awful at the same time.  This is the confusion of speaker demos- you aren't demoing speakers, you are demoing the room.

Brad

@kota1 , that is a strange conundrum, faithful to measurements, but untreated room. Dr. Toole had his omnidirectional speakers in an untreated room too, but his room was very large. That works in a large room where the reflections are delayed. Amir's room is small. Too each their own. His focus is on signal integrity including what comes out of a speaker and debunking.