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Active studio monitors anyone?

Due to the unavailability of a full size Man Room and a sub par Living Room area I have started to seriously consider Active Studio Monitors as my listening room will be in a converted Office that are so prevalent in the newer Suburban House Floorplan.  There seems to be MANY benefits in going active monitors set up in the near field to mid field. Active DSP, No passive crossovers, Plenty of room acoustic adjustments, some with onboard DACS, Some full digital domain till it reaches the drivers, Near full range And ruler flat responses. I have narrowed it down to a few that fit my needs and would greatly reduce the boxes and expense. A good streamer, optional DAC and Pre with active monitors would be the whole kit.

One Im looking at are APS Klasik which will be coming out with a HiFi model of the Klasik Studio Monitor differing by a vinyl or wood wrap of your choice, stand by power on/off, and Grill covers. This is highly regarded for Mixing and MAstering it also looks more like a hifi speaker than a monitor.

Nubert Nupro A300 which look great and is fully digital to the drivers so a high end streamer and the speakers would be the whole system. 

A few from Focal and Dynaudio 

Presonus Sceptre s8 has a great DSP and a Coaxial.

These are just the highly regarded less than 2K offerings and many like the EVENT OPAL, Focal Trio, neumans, ATC and Geithain would be something to look at on the high end if it really works out and even those would be bargains considering how much you would be saving in amps, high end cables, ect.
dcfis
pirius
20 posts
 
I've used Paradigm Active 40's with a Vandersteen Sub for many years (with CJ PV8). I've tried to replace them with all sorts of comparable and well known speaker/amp combos -- but always return to this system. Besides the obvious importance of interconnects, has been power cables and power conditioning.
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 

As you can see in my system link, I use ATC SCM 7's with a pair of Crown D-75a's as monoblocks for computer speakers on my desktop.

This is in the very near nearfield and I have enjoyed them for years - in fact as much or more than any of my full systems.

Curiously, someone at ATC has suggested that their active version of the same speaker would always outperform the passive version.  For example their SCM20's are available in both active and passive versions.

I would like to upgrade to a slightly bigger box (ATC SCM 11s, 19s or 20s?).  But in the audiophile tradition of this forum, to maximize hardware and try very high end class A monoblocks, such as Pass Labs.

Understanding that an active amp (or two) can work beautifully or even be optimized for any particular speaker - can anyone explain why this would necessarily outperform a pair of Pass Lab amps with short runs of high quality cables?


cwlondon
1,210 posts
 

In other words, let's say a manufacturer offers the same monitor, but one is active and one is passive.

I understand the argument that their own amp or amps (in the active version) might be matched to that speaker, voiced to that speaker or otherwise optimized for that speaker blah blah blah.

But wouldn't it also be manufactured to a price point, with some concern for the overall price (and/or weight) of the active monitor?

If so, why wouldn't the passive version - if paired with an ultra high end "audiophile" power amp or amps - potentially sound even better?

ATC makes an SCM 20 passive and an SCM 20 active and once told me at a show that their active monitors would always outperform their passive versions.

They said something about crossovers which despite > 30 years in this hobby made no sense to me, especially since they also sell external amps.  I should have asked if their SCM 20 passive with their amp would under perform their SCM 20 active.

Of course, like any self respecting audiophile, I covet placebo effects, overpriced enclosures, cables and jewel like switches, meters and dials if anyone could please advise?
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