An active speaker may work well with the proprietary internal amp but is even more dependent on the specific amp designed for it.
Rwwear,
I agree with you entirely.
However, my point was that the speaker is designed, built, tested and specified with its built in amplifier to function as a whole. This eliminates the dependence on power amplification/load issues for THE USER by specifically designing an optimum solution for it. If you don't agree with the manufacturers optimized solution and final product, then just like with a passive speaker you are free to choose from many "active speakers" and certainly not just ATC or PMC: other examples are Meridan, KRK, Adam, Westlake, Genelec, Quested, Meyer, Tannoy, Paradigm, Linn, B&O, Mackie, Wharfdale, Klipsch, Yamaha, NHT etc.
Here again I find a high current/powered amp essential. Which is also the reason I used a Krell amp when I helped design speakers for an OTL amp company.
Exactly my point. Do you design the amp and spec it for an 8 ohm and a 4 ohm purely resistive load? Do you desigtn to handle the odd speaker that hits less than 2 ohms (like Infinity) and what compromises does that entail when you do that? Do you design the speaker for a high or low output impedance amp? In fact, what do you design for when building an amp? There are many choices. Do you make the amp less stable but with better specs by giving it extreme bandwidth and low output impedance??
Surely if you know exactly what load the amp is driving and over which bandwidth then you can optimize it (which is what Active speaker manufacturers try to do, often quite carefully in their anechoic test facilities with expensive test gear). Generally there is a range of what manufacturers' use to define "optimized" - from small low cost active (that use the design advantages to reduce cost or footprint) to high cost active speakers (where design is used to maximize the performance of of the combination) - you take your pick.
Alternatively, in a passive setup, the USER is forced to try different components (mix and match) and "earball" things at the delaer or in the home setting and try to decide what sounds most right together. Or possibly canvas opinions of other USERS on what they agree sounds good/right. In any case, this inevitably means the USER is testing a few of what are hundreds (if not tens of thousands) of possible combinations where power amplifier interaction with a complex load will be another Isometimes significant) variable in what is heard. In the worst cases of mis-match between load and amoplifier, I would expect even minor effects like speaker cables resitive/inductive/capacitive effects (although extremely small) may start to affect the sound or stability of the combination with certain music at certain SPL's (whenever or wherever difficulty for that particular combination is encountered).
The compromise for tube lovers is that no active speaker with a built in power amp will run on tubes (due to microphonics) However, the way I understand it - those who choose tubes are really looking to get a different sound from Solid State anyway (better from the tube lovers perspective), in which case, an amplifier that is dependent on the speaker load that it connects to is desirable!
In summary, I tried to tackle the specific question "Can you name just one amp that is not speaker dependent" - I said there isn't one - so we agree! However, I believe that active speakers are largely independent of what they are coupled with (no "combination" effect - just the additive effect of "active speaker" response/coloration with source pre/amp coloration but NOT the additional coloration of the two combined affecting eachother in a "third' from of coloration)
