Are active speakers the best upgrade


I have recently heard Brentworth (single driver, no crossover) and ATC active 100's. They were both vey revealing speakers and it occurred to me that we're chasing better electronics while maybe the speaker crossover is putting all this distortion back into the system.
Is the fact that these speakers are active what makes them so clear? Has anyone compared the active vs. passsive versions of ATC?
It's interesting that ATC focuses on accuracy in the drivers by eliminating hysteresis effects and 1st and 3rd order harmonics while B&W focuses more on the enclosure. I wonder how good B&W could sound if they made their Nautilus speakers active. Maybe they use such good crossovers that its as good as ATC's external crossover. Any thoughts?
cdc

Showing 1 response by clueless

With regard to Lthkeeper's point, Paradigm had nice active speakers now discontinued. They are very good at marketing and my understanding is that they just could not sell them. People will not accept that package. Anyone else heard anything on why their active line was discontinued.

Unfortunately, do not hold your breath if you expect audio to be marketed in anything but separate little boxes as it is now.

I remain