I Was Considering Active, Then I Watched This ...

I’ve had 3 sets of powered speakers/monitors on my desktop system. None were from big-name/big-quality studio monitor specialists such as Genelec, ATC, Hedd, and so on.

I ended up moving away from powered monitors for 2 reasons, both somewhat peculiar to me & my system:

• The smaller factor: Any active speaker can issue self-noise (consequence of the amp running the driver direct, not through a passive crossover). None of the 3 powered pairs I had did this to any real degree, but I’ve read too many user comments about too many brands (including some good/expensive brands) to completely disregard this--particularly in my nearfield application.
• The bigger factor (by far): Most active speakers are the province of professional audio studios. There are a few audiophile examples, but really very few. So in general, as one surveys the field of possible powered monitors, the majority of all candidates are designed for users to rarely if ever simply use them for music enjoyment. To whatever extent powered monitors are "voiced," most of the voicing is aimed at flat, clinical, even forensic sound.

If I had the space and the funds, I would happily try one of the powered ATC models. My passive monitors are ATC SCM12 Pro’s, and they really made me a believer in what ATC can do for music.

I don’t exactly feel the trepidation that Steve Guttenberg speaks about in this video--but in general I do feel that for someone like me, whose primary interest is music appreciation, powered studio monitors are probably not the place I should be looking.