Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

@mijostyn , we are in complete agreement on your last post. I have an all out system in my HT, and "good enough" systems in other rooms all connected via DTS Play-Fi app. I wish more people that bought receivers/preamps with DSP understood that they are limited in what they can do. Even the head panther at ASR eschews acoustic treatments. Why bother dropping big money on components and then choking them in all that reflected sound bouncing uncotrollably around?

@rudyb , WOW, congrats, that looks like a great system and love how they built in an upgrade path. Have you tried after market power cords yet?

Together with the built-in amplifiers and digital signal processors, the powerful woofers operate down to 17 Hz. This is not possible for traditional loudspeakers.

They must bring the thunder and have built in DSP to dial all that bass into the room, sweet!

@mijostyn

You have been at this a while! I too have listened to Hill Plasmatronics and they were amazing.  I've heard almost every Accustat, Maggies, KEF, Dahlquists, Time Windows, Advents, double stacked advents, and a LOT of conventional speakers. I ran a high end store in the late 70s, then was a hi fi rep out of Chicago in the 80s.  

You say "The problem for Active speaker designers is that the room is an integral part of the system."   This is the problem for EVERY speaker designer, active passive or any design between.  This is the mystery sauce behind so many radically different opinions/posts about a given model or brand: "I tried that, it was awful", then "Hey-I own that, it's marvelous".  It's all about the room, making a speaker wonderful and awful at the same time.  This is the confusion of speaker demos- you aren't demoing speakers, you are demoing the room.

Brad

@kota1 , that is a strange conundrum, faithful to measurements, but untreated room. Dr. Toole had his omnidirectional speakers in an untreated room too, but his room was very large. That works in a large room where the reflections are delayed. Amir's room is small. Too each their own. His focus is on signal integrity including what comes out of a speaker and debunking.

Together with the built-in amplifiers and digital signal processors, the powerful woofers operate down to 17 Hz. This is not possible for traditional loudspeakers.

@kota1 Well, I take that kind of marketing babble with a grain of salt, but they did go deep and they stayed controlled, not boomy. What they can also do is change the bass level depending on volume. Like we used to have a loudness switch on an amp in the old days. This now is a fluent change, lower volume, gradual lifted bass. It really makes a difference.