Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused


17 of 23 speakers in my studio and home theater systems are internally powered. My studio system is all Genelec and sounds very accurate. I know the best new concert and studio speakers are internally powered there are great technical reasons to design a speaker and an amp synergistically, this concept is much more important to sound quality than the vibration systems we often buy. How can an audiophile justify a vibration system of any sort with this in mind.

128x128donavabdear

Arguably the highest quality audio systems in the world right now are Level 5 Audionote, and they design every speaker, external xover, transformers, and dampening feet to match. 

And its true that audiophiles like to tinker with matching gear - because even a modest amount of matching gears at the audiophile level will vastly outperform Genelecs and lower end integrated stuff like that. So, its worth it.

also the amplifiers that they use in power speakers are cheap junk.

I have the same situation as @donavabdear , about 17 speakers in my HT most of which are active. I saved myself piles and piles of cash on speakers cables and external amplifiers PLUS get the benefit of active crossovers. The specs for my Paradigm Reference Active speakers are in my system profile. Each speaker is internally biamped. That is like 34 channels of amplification that I didn’t have to buy and setup separately. In a word, the most efficient use of an audiophiles budget is to save money using active speakers and use the money saved on room treatments, clean power, source components, and interconnects.

Dynaudio makes both types of speakers and they break it down in this article:

 

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Can you build a great, 2 channel hifi system going active?

These speakers will do everything. You don’t need to lift a finger other then to select the song you want to play. No way you can get the same SQ with the same budget going the traditional route:

 

 

Read more here:

 

Can you also build a best in class home theater going active?

Duh, only if you want world class, this is what they use in private screening rooms at the movie studios.:

https://www.meyersound.com/focus/residential_cinema/