Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused


17 of 23 speakers in my studio and home theater systems are internally powered. My studio system is all Genelec and sounds very accurate. I know the best new concert and studio speakers are internally powered there are great technical reasons to design a speaker and an amp synergistically, this concept is much more important to sound quality than the vibration systems we often buy. How can an audiophile justify a vibration system of any sort with this in mind.

128x128donavabdear

@thespeakerdude I'm sorry for even making you think of that. Thanks for the answer. It would be a frustrating project because it's practically untestable.

@donavabdear ,

Even for us, where the speaker is connected directly to the amplifier, if it is a simple voltage drive amplifier, there is simply no discussion of amplifier matching, other than can it drive the load, and can it achieve the target output level and distortion level. It is not that hard to design an amplifier that adds no audible coloration to the output even for very low distortion drivers. The amplifier distortion is always << driver distortion.  We have thousands of hours in listening tests and we still listen to every design, every speaker, and compare to reference amplification. Only on more sophisticated amplifier-driver integrations, where we are not using pure voltage drive, is matching not only a consideration, but an integral part of the design process.

I like JBL and use their headphones in the office and Studio 2 line in the man cave.

This is a "one and done" active solution for the "audio challenged" that don’t seem to be able or want to match a stack of stuff together. For the "audio experts" who can it would be tough to get this much performance for the same, or even a higher, price:

 

Notice in the press release, that the press release is from the Harman Luxury Audio group (4329P). It will be interested to see if any measurements come out. It is based on the 708P which is a good studio monitor if you don't push it too hard. Push it hard and it becomes nasty. It is one thing to say compression drivers play loud, which they can. It is another to prove your model does. From the pictures it looks like the same horn as the 708P. That is fine for a studio near-field setting, but may not be ideal in home environments. The vertical is all over the map. Seating height will be critical and watch those floor bounces.

The connectivity is excellent and would suit the modern audio consumer. Run it as part of a full system when you want, treat it like a Sonos the rest of the time. Should be interesting to see how popular it is.