The older I get the less I want my sound system to look like an engineering experiment and more I want it to vanish.
Turn off the lights ;)
Are active speakers worth it now?
I've been paying attention to recent reviews and product announcements for active speakers. Mind you, I'm a convert, I think active speakers are the right answer for many, but I'm a conditional fanboy. For me it's conditional on the overall value.
In the residential high-end ATC has long been a darling of audiophiles, and of course many studio monitors are active. Recent reviews for the Grimm, Focal and Dynaudio active in Stereophile make me hopeful this trend will continue, but at what cost?
That question is literal. Admittedly these speakers have amps built in so that is one less component and cables to buy, but ahem, those prices leave me unimpressed. I'm just one minor voice though, so I ask you, A'goners, if you've been thinking of going fully active like me and what do you think of the price/performance of the marketplace, both in the pro arena and residential high-end? Do these prices say "bargain" to you or "simplicity for a price?"
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Over 5 decades of this hobby, I've experienced component failure in all but three things; turntable, power cables and DAC. Every other kind of component has failed. Sometimes in spectacular fashion, with smoke and everything. Cool. I cannot round the corner that an amplifier failure in an active speaker is going to cost multiples of an outboard amplifier failure and create more havoc. Either failure may take out the connected transducers with them. Tragic First World problem. I've four pairs of ATC active speakers and no failure has happened. Oldest pair (12 years) is the 19A. Perhaps lesser quality brands of active present more problems. Cannot know that. The narrative of possible in-board amplifier failure should not be the deciding factor of ownership regarding an active vs passive design. They can all go very wrong. |
ATC at AXPONA 2026. |
The prism of self-belief is confusingly strong. Some openly admit lack of experience and vision. Seeking truth wherever it might be. Others expend unbelievable energy forcing square pegs into round holes. Exhausting. An audiophile friend and I were gifted the loan of an NAD belt driven table in the 80s. It was cheap, flimsy, ugly and had a flat tone arm. We made fun of it…. until it crushed my friend’s expensive Denon direct-drive table with high end arm and Dynavector Ruby cart. Ghastly! In one fell swoop our prism was crushed! I too had a high end Denon table setup. We both sold. I found an AR ES 1 with Sumiko MMT. We both lived happily ever after. |
@celtic66 - I'm curious, was the lesson for you "direct drive is bad" ? |
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