Do Active Speakers Belong In A High End System?

Mitch,

I never took it as you questioning Class D amps. I've seen several posts from you recently, so I assumed that you are getting ready to make some changes.

Chuck

If you want a professional to design and integrate your amp and speakers for you, its a very good way to go. If they do a good job, the results will be "high end". No reason to doubt that the reputable companies out there that offer active speaker products cannot get it right. Whether you like it or not is a matter of personal preference. At that point its as high end as anything I would think. Technically, I guess there will always be other options out there that cost more so those might technically be considered more "high end" FWIW.

An active system should out perform an equivalent passive system. The elimination of the passive crossover is the key. Also since the designer knows the characteristics of the drivers the amps do not have to be over built. Active loudspeaker systems are very popular in the pro audio area. Typically the amps are readily accessible and easily, as in field, replaceable.

In theory, the answer is a resounding YES. Even better might be to have digital signal processing right on the board and have a pure digital USB/SPDIF/TOSLINK ETC, Come directly to the speaker.
In reality, its tough to get right

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With the rise in popularity of Class D amps, it would seem to be a no-brainer for active speakers to begin to flourish in the marketplace. Their small size and light weight certainly make it feasible to attach them to full sized full-range towers.

I think it would take one of the big boys in the passive speaker camp to start offering an active speaker option to get things going on a large scale.

I would hazard to guess that 99.9% of the speaker systems here on the 'Gon are passive. Not counting subwoofers of course.
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