In praise of active speakers
As a recording engineer and audiophile, I've asked myself for years why the audiophile community hasn't caught on to the high-quality and cost-effective active speakers that are common in recording studios but not in home theaters. After the recent Stereophile review of the Dynaudio Focus 200 XD, I was prompted to write this note in praise of powered speakers.
An active speaker is simply an integrated system with a cross-over, bi- or tri-amped amplifiers and a 2- or 3-way speaker all in one box, i.e., the electronics are in the back of the speaker cabinet. There are several reasons to prefer this over a system with a stand-alone power amplifier, high-voltage cables and passive speakers:
it uses cheaper & more efficient (low-power) cross-overs;
smaller (2- or 3-way) power amps are required;
the amplifiers can be precisely matched to the drivers they power;
it uses easier/cheaper cabling (good-quality microphone cables will perform well);
it uses balanced/shielded cabling (less worries about interference); and
some active speakers even integrate the DAC (for digital cabling).
The disadvantages of this approach include:
you must get clean power to both speakers; and
it assumes a balanced pre-amp with XLR outputs.
There are several manufacturers of moderately-priced yet still certainly audiophile-quality active speakers, including for example (Northern Europeans):
Dynaudio - http://www.dynaudio.com
Genelec - http://www.genelec.com
Adam - http://www.adam-audio.com
For less than $3000 one can get a pair of mid-size speakers such as the Genelec 8040s or Adam A7Xs with a matched sub-woofer and be on-the-air with a competent mid-range audiophile system (source not included).
Among the higher-priced offering are the products of (UK & US manufacturers),
ATC - http://atcloudspeakers.co.uk
PMC - http://pmc-speakers.com
Barefoot - http://barefootsound.com
In the $20-50k range (still not "cost-no-object" for sure), one would be silly not to consider these systems before dropping so much on a configuration like those so frequently documented in Stereophile ($10-25k for speakers, $5-15k for amplifier, $1-5k for cables) . I contend (and many audio professionals agree) that in whatever price range you're looking, if add up what you were planning to invest in a power amp, speaker cables and passive speakers, and compare it to what you can get with similarly priced active speakers, critical listening will frequently lead you to the active speaker solution.
Stephen Pope
In praise of active speakers
As a recording engineer and audiophile, I've asked myself for years why the audiophile community hasn't caught on to the high-quality and cost-effective active speakers that are common in recording studios but not in home theaters. After the recent Stereophile review of the Dynaudio Focus 200 XD, I was prompted to write this note in praise of powered speakers.
An active speaker is simply an integrated system with a cross-over, bi- or tri-amped amplifiers and a 2- or 3-way speaker all in one box, i.e., the electronics are in the back of the speaker cabinet. There are several reasons to prefer this over a system with a stand-alone power amplifier, high-voltage cables and passive speakers:
it uses cheaper & more efficient (low-power) cross-overs;
smaller (2- or 3-way) power amps are required;
the amplifiers can be precisely matched to the drivers they power;
it uses easier/cheaper cabling (good-quality microphone cables will perform well);
it uses balanced/shielded cabling (less worries about interference); and
some active speakers even integrate the DAC (for digital cabling).
The disadvantages of this approach include:
you must get clean power to both speakers; and
it assumes a balanced pre-amp with XLR outputs.
There are several manufacturers of moderately-priced yet still certainly audiophile-quality active speakers, including for example (Northern Europeans):
Dynaudio - http://www.dynaudio.com
Genelec - http://www.genelec.com
Adam - http://www.adam-audio.com
For less than $3000 one can get a pair of mid-size speakers such as the Genelec 8040s or Adam A7Xs with a matched sub-woofer and be on-the-air with a competent mid-range audiophile system (source not included).
Among the higher-priced offering are the products of (UK & US manufacturers),
ATC - http://atcloudspeakers.co.uk
PMC - http://pmc-speakers.com
Barefoot - http://barefootsound.com
In the $20-50k range (still not "cost-no-object" for sure), one would be silly not to consider these systems before dropping so much on a configuration like those so frequently documented in Stereophile ($10-25k for speakers, $5-15k for amplifier, $1-5k for cables) . I contend (and many audio professionals agree) that in whatever price range you're looking, if add up what you were planning to invest in a power amp, speaker cables and passive speakers, and compare it to what you can get with similarly priced active speakers, critical listening will frequently lead you to the active speaker solution.
Stephen Pope