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.

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Tomorrow I’m ordering the DSP equipment for my Genelec system the people at Sweetwater said my Protools MTRX could do just as good of job but it doesn’t. The crossovers in the Genelec "The Ones" are active so they are programable, this opens up the ability for the amps to drive the drivers differently at low levels among other things. This is from the Genelec site
 

Active crossover operating at low signal levels.

Active Crossovers Technology

Audio electronic crossovers allow to split the audio signal into separate frequency bands that can be separately routed to individual power amplifiers which then are connected to specific transducers optimized for a particular frequency band.

Active crossovers come in both digital and analogue varieties. Genelec digital active crossovers include additional signal processing, such as driver protection, delay, and equalization.

Genelec analogue active crossover filters contain electronic components that are operated at low signal levels suitable for power amplifier inputs. This is in contrast to passive crossovers that operate at the high signal levels of the power amplifier’s outputs, having to handle high currents and in some cases high voltages.

In a typical 2-way system the active crossover needs two power amplifiers — one for the woofer and one for the tweeter.

The active crossover design offers multiple benefits:

  • The frequency response becomes independent of any dynamic changes in the driver’s electrical characteristics or the drive level.
  • There is an increased flexibility and precision to adjust and fine tune each output frequency response for the specific drivers used.
  • Each driver has its own signal processing and power amplifier. This isolates each driver from the drive signals handled by the other drivers, reducing inter-modulation distortion and overdriving problems.
  • The ability to compensate for sensitivity variations between drivers.
  • The possibility to compensate for the frequency and phase response anomalies associated with a driver’s characteristics within the intended pass-band.
  • The flat frequency response of a high-quality active loudspeaker is a result of the combined effect of the crossover filter response, power amplifier responses and driver responses in a loudspeaker enclosure.

Using the active approach enables frequency response adjustments and optimization of the full loudspeaker system, placed in various room environments, without expensive external equalizers. The end result is a simpler, more reliable, efficient, consistent and precise active loudspeaker system.

OMG, I'll bet it will take the "ones" to the "plus ones". I hope you can post before and after graphs. I am all for 

simpler, more reliable, efficient, consistent and precise active loudspeaker system.

Now you have a matched system, nice.

Ya, I don't know why I didn't think of crossovers as moving and changing per impedance, frequency, amplitude. I never read that part of the documentation of the Genelecs, I never had that thought. Again if a speaker had an active crossover that changed per the electronic principles of the way the amp looks at the driver and a speaker crossover that doesn't which one is better? Hello McFly!! What an obvious question it's why the more I work on the Genelecs the better they get. Before and after graph would be great but there will never be an after graph for me this is more of a journey than a destination. 

I do not buy Active speakers.  Sorry.  The active part gets broken well before the speakers do, and often the expense pushes them into the parts bin. Also, the majority of "Active" speakers are powered with cheap D-Class amps that don't work very well.  I might change my mind if the active speakers come with replaceable amplifiers that can be upgraded.

@big_green_jelly_bean 

Bryston has active speakers with an outboard crossover so you can use any amp you like. Best of both worlds.