Are active speakers worth it now?

In my experience they are not worth the investment.  The amps eventually need to be replaced or repaired and when they do it’s usually an expensive and unpleasant process.  Most manufacturers offer relatively short term warranties which is an indication of what they expect.  If they lasted longer they would offer longer warranties.  Passive speakers can last forever just like external amps.  Powered subs, yes.  Powered speakers, pass.  

This is to me a very powerful argument.  ATC has a relatively stable lineup, which hopefully means you can expect to replace any amplifiers if needed, though I believe they also use linear amps, so they're actually easier to fix. 

Hi,

Bryston has speakers that are set up for external crossovers. They have an electronic crossover and amplifiers to match. Best upgrade I ever did!

And for my PCs, I've been using Genelec's for years. Every once in awhile you see someone selling those at fire sale prices on eBay.

Happy Listening!

If ATC, maybe contact them to find out effort and cost of internal speaker amp replacement to be informed of the bottom line cost comparisons. 

Kind of adjacent to this, I've seen JBL publish the "transfer function" of the crossovers they use in the high end models.  This would allow anyone to recreate the crossovers in an active domain. 

So powered subwoofers are also a bad design?  The same arguments apply to them as to full range loudspeakers.