Are active speakers worth it now?

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.

@lonemountain --

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" ? 

As executed by our very expensive DD Denon tables, yes.  The cheaply made NAD table sound floor so much quieter which made reproduction more dynamic.  Seemed more space between vocals and instruments.  The AR ES 1 table proved this out and of course was more defined than the NAD.

First table was a Dual 1229, rim drive which was surprisingly good.