Are active speakers worth it now?

I think an important factor is the mindset of the buyer.  My son is very impressed by my systems, but it is just 'too complicated' for him.  He can digest tons of info on ski equipment, but not audio.  Just a fact.  So when he wanted a system for his new home, all of my suggestions were ignored (and I was advocating a one box system!).  He decided independently on a pair of KEF LS 60's.  He loves them and they don't sound bad.

Note this decision was not due to savings on PC's, interconnects and components.  He simply wanted it simple.

Now I just need him to stream directly to the app vs bluetooth!  He can hear it.

@erik_squires  An active speaker is giving all your freedoms away. Don't become subservient like that.

You need to have the freedom to use your own amps, not some class Diddly reek board sitting in there.

Go one step further and reclaim even more freedom from the speaker manufacturer.

Tell him, "Its not me, its you, your passive crossover sounds lousy. So, give me a button to bypass it"

And voila....now you can run your own active crossover, run your own amps for each driver, biamp, triamp, mmmm...even more freedom

Say no to subservience and active speakers...Stay free in the square, shire... Enrique.

Legacy audio. Have several sets i bought used.the ice modules are < 400$ at parts express. Happy listening. External x over wavelet and dsp  happy listeninf

OP

in my opinion. I can offer my view on the actives made by ATC as I have demo them and considered that path, I truly believe, if the manufacturer did their work right, active speakers are truly the way to go. and what I mean by that is the synergy of their speaker and the amp they put in is perfect match in all terms, sonics, prat, tonality etc. AND that what I heard in ATC active line. I cannot comment on other brands, but some reviewers swear on brands that go active as really good.

although what you give up is the ability to tweak your gear to suit your ultimate goal, the ability to move amps around to suit your listening pleasure

YMMV

I bought a new pair of closeout Legacy Calibre XD a couple weeks back and I think they’re looking like being good value. They have a biamp toggle, so you can flick a switch and use an external power amp to drive the AMT tweeter, while the internal amp remains driving the bass and midrange.

So there’s some flexibility for people who want to shape the sound a bit. I bought a LTA ZOTL40 to drive the ribbons and after adding some necessary attenuation to the internal amp to match gains, it sounds pretty good.

The speakers only have about 120 hours so it’s too early to make a determination on value, but it’s looking quite good so far.