Abandonning Powered Speakers - Why?

Audio is a business and the sellers know that the sickness of the audiophile is in the equipment and sound variations. An all-in-one doesn't usually fare well; whether it be powered speakers, integrated amps, or CD/Preamps. Why do you think one of the most profitable ventures are in cables??

On the other hand, in the pro market, active speakers are more commonplace. I've been in several recording studios where the monitors sounded great. What they had in common was they were using Mackie HR824 actively bi-amped two-way Studio Monitors. Compared to "audiophile" prices, they are not cost prohibitive. You can find a pair for around $1,000 (used). It would seem to me that speakers such as these should be high on the list of those looking to build a system on a "budget."
They sound great, have excellent high and low extension and, if you spread them apart, they will throw a wide deep sound-stage. I'm looking for an excuse to build a 2nd or 3rd system around them. In fact, what I want to do is use my Mac G4 1.25 GHz Powerbook as the transport. I've hooked this up to an external DAC (sound card) that takes a USB digital feed from the computer and listened to CD's I ripped to the hard drive uncompressed using AIFF (These were CD's I purchased). It sounds great. I could take a R & L analogue out from the DAC, plug it into the Mackies and have a great sounding 2nd system. I can also play DVD's and the 15" widescreen monitor looks really good. Right now, I am using an M-Audio USB Audiophile DAC, which cost $175. The sound of CD's ripped uncompressed to my hard drive fed digitally to and played through the DAC is better than a lot of mid-fi CD players I've heard. I'm curious to see how much better it would sound with a higher end DAC like the Apogee. Anyway, I'm rambling. The theory behind active speakers is sound and though some inveterate tweakers (Audiophiles) may resist the advantages inherent in the design, plenty of other audio enthusiasts and professionals embrace it. I would encourage everyone to audition speakers like the Mackies, Adams, Genelecs, Behringer, etc. Active Studio Monitors.

Of course, "monoblocks" are almost the same thing.

I belive that Active speakers will limit the market for the manufacturers to those who haven't bought an amp yet or are willing to sell what they own. They do sound great,
each driver with it's own amp and no crossover losses.
My guest is that the manufacturers drop them following the trends in the market.

Eldartford,

Before I begin, let me admit that I have been an Active speaker user for 15 years (Meridian) and a Meridian DSP speaker user for the past year. I drank the whole jar of Kool-Aid. With that disclaimer:

In fact, Monoblocks are not at all the same as powered speakers. Passive speakers receive a large electrical signal from an amp, through their crossover (single driver units, like Lowthars, being the exception). Since the signal is large (compared to the line level signal received by the amp) the crossover has to be large. Large, high quality components are expensive. Large chokes and caps, etc. must be must be used. Since it's passive, the crossover can only "throw away" power to provide proper equalization to the various drivers (can't add it). Crossovers are notorious for adding phase anomalies and can introduce a wide swing in speaker impedence versus frequency, making a speaker difficult to drive. Since the crossover must "throw away" power to equalize a speaker, power is wasted (sometimes a LOT of power).

Active speakers, on the other hand, receive a line-level signal into a small, active crossover, where impedence is a non-issue (line level impedence being 100x or more that of speaker level impedence). The signal is split actively to one amp per driver (or driver type). These amps are sized specifically for and connected directly to the drivers, which present a much more level impedence to the amplifier. Damping factor, efficiency (and usually dynamics) are improved. Because damping factor is greatly improved, cone control is improved, allowing the active speaker to control large driver excursion and reach louder volumes, frequently with smaller drivers. The distance between amp and driver, combined with the even impedence curve, make (internal) cable selection much less critical (obviously, one can not choose traditional speaker cable for an active speaker).

The next step, of course, is a DSP speaker, but I won't get into that here.

I recommend that those interested in this topic read Bob Stuart's (Meridian) white paper at http://www.meridian.co.uk/w_paper/DSP_speakers_scr.pdf. Bob has been a pioneer in active speakers since the '70s. Today, most Meridian speakers go a step further than simply active, maintaining a digital signal all the way into the speakers, but the white paper has a lot of great information about the advantages of active speakers in general. It's an interesting read.

As I see it, the real disadvantage of active speakers is that they restrict the user's choice. I, for one, am happy to have a custom-tailored amp/speaker interface, but I know that many hobbyists want to choose each system component individually (hence the seperation of DACs from transports, phono stages from preamps, etc.) certainly, active speakers remove some of the ability to "tweak" a system. As an obsessive/compulsive hobbyist with enough to obsess about already, I welcome the simplification.