Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

If you like to tinker, great. Tinker with the front end. But why tinker matching amps, drivers, and speaker cables when the engineer who DESIGNED the speaker can do it for you at a much lower cost?

OP, powered speakers show "audiophiles" are a bit confused and that isn’t all their fault. If you are an audio dealer which customer would you prefer, the one upgrading constantly or the customer that is one and done? I think the industry took the more profitable route and created the conditions that caused the confusion. Thankfully companies like Dynaudio, KEF, JBL, etc. are now trying to provide both products and education to remedy the confusion.

I don't think there are really any issues, here, but I have no problems with what anyone believes is a great system. We all have different hearing curves and qualities of attention (the latter can change at any given moment). We all have different means ($$$ that we can dedicate to audio) and different patterning over the years - based on the aforementioned elements as well as the types of music we listen to.

I went from separates and tinkering to an active system (as opposed to simply active speakers) quite a while ago; I've stuck with Meridian gear as much as possible because the system design made so much sense and the sound (relative to the recording qualities) is always "alive" for me - so I don't tinker much anymore (I've no real desire to even experiment with any kind of spatial audio beyond the simple 5.1 system, as I don't watch much in the way of video), which puts me in that category of just loving the music for its own sake.

No big revelations, here, but I enjoy reading about everyone's questioning and experimentation. Whether you've got the system you'll stay with for life or are likely to work for its continuing evolution, I don't see any reason for ego trips; you can't compare subjective results ... just enjoy.

Rich

I agree, anyone who doesn't do what I do must be confused.

How do you think vibration effects the sound?  To me this is mute, the only way i know of that an electronic component will be affected by vibrations is if there is a magnetic field in the area strong enough to induce current in the system due to said vibrations. There are micro magnetic fields everywhere and some even higher ones due to sun activity, etc. but even those can be easily filtered out in electronic systems, ie feedback, shielding etc. If you're not getting hum in your system from hi magnetic fields (note usually grounding issues), I don't see how the amp inside or outside makes much difference if designed well. 

Thats my take but i may be missing something or maybe. 

I have used and installed many Genelec's, I've always thought they are great sounding, low distortion, play very loud cleanly and are boring. They are pretty flat response and I guess they work well in a dedicated theater application which is where I have used them, even some of the big big boys with the outboard 6U rack mount amps, 1034B or something like that. The thing I was pretty disappointed is that the amps were made in china, I had to modify three of the 10 inch 2-way Genelec's so we took off the amp boards and sawed off the the MDF that houses them (we automated them on ceiling lifts to fit through existing openings behind a screen) the amp boards, power supply windings, are made in china which is only visible when you take them apart, and those are pretty expensive speakers back when we did this on 2005 or so.

I would use Genelec for a studio, dedicated theater, maybe PC speakers, but not for HiFi 2 channel playback, they are too flat, neutral and boring. They can play loud without distorting, but I like magic when I play music, I want to be in the room at the tip of the mic, I want to see the performers.

Honestly the best powered speakers I've heard in a while are the Heavenly Soundworks, they were at the Long Beach audio show and were pretty awesome, I do like the simplicity of just having 2 speakers and a source like a Aurender...

Regarding vibration control, it is everything, half the holographic, super detailed sound of my system I attribute to my ceramic cones, maple boards, sorbothane pads on the rack, carbon fiber pucks under the speakers, Schumann wave generator etc... and you cant use most of that stuff on a powered speaker system.