Why are we so passive?

I guess the point is there are SELF Powered speakers, commonly called Active, but are Not necessarily Active speakers in the true sense.. And then there are True Active Speakers…Which in most cases would be best done with external amps and external electronic crossovers, which again any speaker system essentially could be converted to be an Active system, The Generic word Active does not define " Internal power amps " as many seem to believe, Active means Electronic Filters and separate power channels for each driver.

So back to the first question, Why not build more "Self Powered" speakers is really what people seem to want… mainly cause the cost and quality is going to be worse in most cases than running a separate 2 channel or pair of Mono block amps on your rack… True Actives "Internally powered & filtered or externally powered " are a whole different ballgame is all people need to realize I guess.
I have a question are Meridian Speakers an active system? Or are they just passive crossovers with internal mono amps running all drivers?

Active speakers make the most sense on all technical levels. The audio community doesn't seek the best engineering principles to acheive this, they rely on sex appeal with a sense of pride and complication.

This link with Bob Stuart talking about active designs should really open peoples eyes in engineering terms.

http://www.cinenow.com/uk/news-2117.html

I'm afraid Meridian and B&O are some of the very few companies developing these systems which IMHO will be mainstream in consumer grade electronics in 10 years. Active designs in my opinion aren't supported as they should be because the typical music 'lover' is really a 'tweak' lover and therefore doesn't want to commit to a music system that he doesn't get to engineer himself (at least in his head) and play around with numerous variables (cables/pre's/amp's etc...). But that's just my opinion, what do I know?

I've worked with both active and passive loudspeakers, and both can sound great. Or terrible... design and execution are, as always, the keywords.
For myself I'm considering going more or less active. I'd like to purchase a second (Threshold) poweramp, have them matched and remove the crossover in my Apogees. Filtering would be done by a modified Behringer active crossover placed between the pre- and poweramps. But since that will require some investments and I'm a little short (as always actually) on cash it'll probably won't be soon.

Lush,

I am glad to see a consumer brand embracing active speakers...until now it has been only computer speakers and pro gear where you find active speakers (pros began to embrace active speakers about 20 years ago...)

As Meridian correctly states they have a lot of technical advantages....which may or may not be enough to conquer the consumer market. Time will tell...perhaps the already wide acceptance of active subwoofers among consumers is the"Trojan horse".

thanks for clarification undertow. i apparently used the 'common generic' definition.. my bad. fwiw, cos. have been selling all in one designs for decades. technical issues aside, if there was a way to satisfy both a lover of chamber music and a heavy metal fan in one design it would have been achieved by now. i presume most a-goners have fairly well trained ears tuned to their musical preferences and living conditions etc. so i do not see a market selling packaged systems to this crowd. but as lush says: that's just my opinion, what do i know.