Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

Comments are being made about the quality of parts built into active speakers versus external parts. I know this is a touchy subject, but when our higher end active speakers are considered, the quality of our internal DAC never enters the discussion for us. If we improved it, no one would know as the performance of the drivers is the limiting factor by a large degree. To meet marketing requirements, we are implementing the common consumer filters on some models which you may be able to hear if you feed it 44.1 or 48. Across the price range, the amplifier quality scales so that the driver is always the dominant sound unless you are driving them harder than they are designed for. The only time DAC performance is evident for us is on next generation and R&D designs as we need to grow our own. We need much higher conversion speed and less latency than integrated solutions.

@mijostyn ,

Your setup a a good example of where an active speaker could provide benefit. A sub-woofer designed to compliment your speakers could use multiple drivers to create a shaped emission that matches your main speakers more closely. Could you do that passively? Perhaps, but it is much easier to do with DSP, and it is more flexible. There could be options for programming the listener distance to better shape the response as the speaker transitions from line source to other, etc.  Similar to how external DSP can not fix all room issues, it cannot fix all inherent speaker issues either. At the penultimate, a sophisticated active solution could shape the drive signal for the panels to extend dynamic range.

@cindyment is back. 

@mijostyn , as for multichannel there are fewer recordings being made than in the past, as for Atmos it is snowballing. Atmos is OBJECT based, not CHANNEL based. It is a different category, not channel based at all. All you need to experience it is a set of the right headphones. Stop by the atmos music thread if you want to discuss. 

@thespeakerdude Something we haven't mentioned is the nature of class D amps when they can be designed for a particular impedance of speaker they can be very good, this is why a class D Subs are not so much of a compromise it acts basically like an AB amp. With class D amps being designed for a smaller frequency window of driver the normal problem with class D amps is helped because impedance changes with frequency so the filter circuit can be much simpler. Thoughts?