Active Speakers Better? No, per Michael Borresen

Fully active digital xover triamped/biamped speakers using pure digital input amps would simply kill any speaker alive.....he he......that statement will get you going.

The Peachtree GaN 1 is a 200 watt a channel stereo amp that has coax input only. It converts PCM directly to PWM.....there are no linear amplifier stages or feedback......this is the same as Tact, Lyndorf and Technics.....but according to the guy that makes these inexpensive modules.....he thinks they sound better than Technics.......check out the thread on the amp here on Audiogon.

The module in the GaN 1 is a 4 channel amp (50 watts each) that combines two pairs in differential mode to make 200 watts. If you bought two of these $2000 amps and rewired each one so you had a three channel amp.....two 50 watters and one 200 watter per channel......you could then tri-amp using a minidsp digital xover or other pure digital xover. You could then hardwire the outputs of the amps directly to the voice coil wire of drivers mounted on a super damped and braced open baffle....or box....if you like box sound. Now you have a triamped speaker that uses no DAC, no preamp, no linear amps, no passive xover.  By using software in the digital domain you can time align the drivers, make the frequency flat as a board at your listening position and set the xover at any slope and frequency you want.  This would simply blow your frickin mind. The volume would be controlled in the digital domain in the server/streamer using lossless digital volume control. What I suggest has never been done before but is available now. You could do it yourself......but most here are not DIYers. I am sure there are manufacturers of speakers that will be implementing exactly what I suggest inside a loudspeaker......The output board weighs less than 2 lbs......the revolution is now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those fearing passive networks and driver integration issues seem to be a logical choice for a full-range driver system. Since it's active. 1 amp selected to best match transducers 1 driver no network. Maybe that's where you active lovers need to be in the end. And keep in mind many actives still use a passive part to keep drivers from blowing during amp turn-on or amp damage. And is the cabinet really the best place for an amp and an active crossover to reside? I have to fix so so many subwoofers that have an amp and active all-in-one box they don't have longevity. Is your costly active just a short-term friend that gets binned in a few years when amps fail?

@ricevs , that is an interesting direction to go, DIY. I know GR Research and Crites have kits for speakers. Do you think you could take an off the shelf $ amp and and $ speaker, do a little DIY and make it sound $$$?

@johnk , my Paradigm active spekaers have an LED light that makes the logo glow green. When you max it out they turn red so you know to turn it down.

@johnk wrote:

Those fearing passive networks and driver integration issues seem to be a logical choice for a full-range driver system. Since it's active. 1 amp selected to best match transducers 1 driver no network. Maybe that's where you active lovers need to be in the end.

A wideband driver sans cross-over of any kind is a "pure" approach, also with regard to maintaining a single point source per channel, but driver integration actively is really the preferred route to go vs. passive, so it's the latter "camp" that would seek to benefit the most with a pair of full-range drivers, irrespective of the challenges (and limitations) such a solution brings with it. Calling a full-range driver sans cross-over an "active" approach btw. doesn't seem strictly correct, as by definition active involves an electronic/DSP XO prior to amplification to be named such. 

And keep in mind many actives still use a passive part to keep drivers from blowing during amp turn-on or amp damage. And is the cabinet really the best place for an amp and an active crossover to reside?

Safety measures with active can be part of the amplifier section as well instead of necessitating of passive component, and even so a single capacitor as a safety means isn't what constitutes a load scenario comparable to that of typical passive cross-over with coils and all. 

As I have outlined at numerous occasions active can be configured as a separate (/outward) solution as well, and so "component care" would apply as it pertains to any typical passive setup. Among the many bundled active speakers that are, incl. not least pro sector products, reliability seems pretty solid. Poster @lonemountain mentioned active ATC speakers being extremely reliable even following many years of extensive pro usage, while sounding great, not to mention cables being less of a variable here. Except..

I have to fix so so many subwoofers that have an amp and active all-in-one box they don't have longevity. Is your costly active just a short-term friend that gets binned in a few years when amps fail?

And this is the one exception - with actively configured, bundled subs - where amp durability can be rather dubious and many a (bad) capacitor in particular has blown up fairly early in its life cycle. Plate amps found in many subs may be high power, but component quality is often so-so to pretty shitty.

Again, this is where I would direct the attention towards the fact that an actively configured sub can be such with an outwardly positioned amp (of much better quality). This is what I do myself with my pair of tapped horn subs being driven by a Crown K2 - actively; the digital XO precedes the amp, and the rest of them for the remaining frequency span above sans any passive XO parts, which is to say fully actively.