Active speaker, the future? or another fad?

Phlanoue, who's making custom active crossovers you can substitue for stock passive unit's in speakers, that still make the speaker "balance" sonically like it was ment to using the original passive?
My couple of attemps over the years of bypassing the passive crossovers in passive speakers has yielded to so great results. Maybe I'm missing something. Any recommendations and combinations You think would work with passive speakers using active crossovers peronally? Thx Phlanoue. I'm interested in your comments here

Exertfluffer -- all you need is the passive x-over's crossing frequencies and filter order/ type (i.e. 1st order Butterworth, 4th L/R, etc). You can take it from there with an active or passive line-level x-over.
It's useful to have some measuring equip though, or have access to same -- so as to check (at least) the amplitude response curves on & off axis.

Hummmmm. I seen no reason why what you're saying shouldn't work, and maybe work well if pulled off corrrectly. I'll have to do more experimenting.
I once took a pair of Thiel 2.3's and tried "bi-amping" them (*adding another set of pots, one to mid/tweet and one to woofer). The sound was too bright and unbalanced. I didn't try bypassing the passive crossover all together however, and replacing with an active exertnal set up though. I guess I assumed it would give similar results, and that the drivers where balanced with "that stock passive crossover"!
Maybe I should contact some of these speaker makers and pick their brains.
Any input?
If what you're saying is correct, and by substituting an active for passive cross is that simple, and you can retain the sonic integrity throughout, then you should simply have a much much better speaker overall with a well integrated and executed active crossover application, right? I mean surely you'd have much more control over your drivers, higher damping, less power requirments potentially, and more flexibility, yes? What do ya think?

Exertfluffer, you and I are not in disagreement. What you are talking about would allow the flexibility of tailoring the sound to the listener. Again, that is a major goal of mine.

However, as has been pointed out by Phlanoue and Gregm, this is far from a new proposal. I would make sure any company trying to sell you otherwise acknowledges this, or I would start asking questions about them.

In a perfect world, such a speaker should in fact be cheaper, as the company can walk away from the expense of a crossover(this is where I will cede to a manufacturer carping about design costs). You just basically hardwire the drivers to your power amps. Of course, this is high end audio, and when it is all said and done, I would predict we'll end up paying more for this.

I think Vandersteen has been pretty successful selling their 5 series speakers and they're active. FWIW, the 5A's have blown me away and blown the Revel Salon's I've heard.