# Active vs passive speakers?



## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 5, 2014)

I am using active speakers, which I think sound pretty good. I don't really have an opinion about which is best, Active or Passive, apart from mine sound really nice. 

I found this (link below) which is very interesting, basically proposing that Active speakers are better. I have a bit of an interest in HI-FI stuff, and I have to say, what the guy is saying seems to make sense to me.

http://pteacoustics.com/linked/the case for powered speakers.pdf

Also I found this forum, were some guy is arguing the same, Active is better.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/600096/act...-dispelling-the-ignorance-confusion-and-myths

What do you guys think, and please read the article on the link above before commenting.


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## Ferrum Master (Jan 5, 2014)

You need 5.1 or stereo? Seconds it all depends on the speaker itself... Me myself cannot stand gainclone type IC amps usually used in active speakers and bla bla my religious stuff, but those are my ears, it is different for each other.

First for movies and etc stuff... ehrm... to me it does not matter... use any of them. You can't get good from all worlds... like the crispiness of electrostatic speakers, mellow distortion of tube amps or heavy subsonic destroyers made by transistor train amps, or the best always is a single driver full spectrum speaker, with no crossovers and filters... that's it, either boobs or slender body otherwise it is fake 

Personally I am using handcrafted QUAD405 amplifier, that honestly now is like 606, why? Because it is for home, it is a hybrid current dumping topology, so it does not get hot and eat electricity while in idle, but it sounds very very good to my ears... as i spent hell of a time tweaking each part of it, it is great for gaming and heavy music and reveals nice details with the current load I drive them. And because of that, I can't listen to less detailed ones anymore, I am spoiled. Usually I feel that I get tired of listening or the sound seems muddy, although I know how it sounded at home and I actually liked that record.

Active speakers are... eehrm... I dislike them, they are boring, usually poorly designed, you have to trade off space vs speaker size, and cheap elements and heat etc, a mess, I dislike seeing power coords to each speaker etc, At first it seem less hassle as with dedicated amp, but usually it is not.

So by definition... any of them... properly designed passive speaker should kill any active one, when driven from a proper source[for domestic home speakers only]

If you have interest more, read up from this mate... He is a true godfather in this industry... he has good articles for starters.

http://sound.westhost.com/articles.htm


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## Deleted member 24505 (Mar 8, 2014)

What about these?

http://www.russandrews.com/product-Meridian-DSP-3200-Loudspeakers-4534.htm

Meridian make some of my favourite active speakers ever, plus it is a very good English Hi-FI brand.


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## BumbleBee (Mar 10, 2014)

I didn't read the PDF you linked because I already know the advantages and disadvantages.

I would not spend $7000 CDN on that Meridian system or any active speakers.

if I had that kind of money I would spend $4500 on Salk, DeVore, Harbeth, etc passive tower speakers. $1500 on a Jolida integrated tube amplifier or power amplifier and tube preamp depending on the speakers. $500 on a Musical Paradise MP-D1 D/A converter and whatever is left would be spent on a electrician, Owens Corning panels and a USB condenser microphone.

that's just a more attractive proposition to me.


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## Steevo (Mar 10, 2014)

The active/passive debate has raged for years, and while the active side has had a good theory and some mediocre at best application the changes in layout and power for passive and the understanding and matching at the top end has made those arguments obsolete except for the high of the high power setups where dissipating the power and delivering it is truly an issue. Not making a couple hundred watts of clean output to a load through 50 feet of good cable. 

The second issue is the music at this level is only as good as the source, and we do not control the multi-track mix, and until we do the whole idea of "sounding" better is purely subjective based on who did what at the board and how they felt about the music. 

Lastly, everyone will be a dick about it, but I play with the EQ, because I like to, you should too, just become tom, dick, or harry think it sounds good with a completely flat response doesn't mean you will.


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