Why do most audiophile prefer passive speakers?

[Richard Dale]

1 hour ago, erasergate said:

May I know why ? 

 

In relation to this, I have more questions.

 

- It seem to me that an active speakers is more convenient ?

- Can i still put powered speakers on AMP/DAC ?

- there are speakers with built in amp/dac , will the external amp/dac override it ? add? or vice versa?

Active speakers have built in amplifiers and so there is no reason to have another one.
 

Audiophiles don’t use active speakers for mainly historical reasons. They are more attractive now we have class D amplifiers, and they can be all digital - that is what has changed in the last ten years.

 

These are the rules and reasons I followed when creating my KEF LS50 wireless based active system. You want active speakers with built in DACs and DSP as well as amplifiers, and ideally a streamer too. Then a pair of active subwoofers are a more cost effective way to get high quality bass than large floor standing speakers. You should spend up to about the same amount of money on acoustic treatment for the room as you spend on the speakers, unless the speakers are really expensive.

[Richard Dale]

1 hour ago, 4est said:

As for myself, I am not convinced that the DSP applied to a lot of these speakers can overcome the small drivers that often accompany the actives.

My LS50 Wireless speakers have a subwoofer output with filters you can customise with the KEF control app, and I use them with a pair of subs. That works very well. 

 

The question 'Why do most audiophiles prefer not to use subwoofers?' seems to be related to the question that is the subject of this thread. Logically it makes more sense to put the bass units in separate boxes, but most audiophiles don't want to do that. Subs are seen as a home theatre thing.

[Richard Dale]

3 hours ago, sandyk said:

My experience is that it is hard to seamlessly integrate all speakers into a system so that one area doesn't cause a little "colouration"  with high quality audio, although it isn't a problem in home theatre where it's more about steering sound effects and dialogue.

Maybe you are thinking of integrating subs with passive speakers, as opposed to integrating with active speakers that have a controllable DSP based high pass filter that makes it easier?

[Richard Dale]

2 minutes ago, Abtr said:

 

I think many audiophiles don't want the extra AD/DA conversion and DSP of (most) active speakers. Indeed, what would be the use of owning a state of the art DAC if its output is resampled, digitally processed and again DA converted by some DAC chips inside your speakers? Personally I use a high quality analogue active 24dB/oct. Linkwitz-Riley 2-way crossover for my passive KEF-LS50s and powered subwoofer. I'm planning to give the active KEFs a try but I seriously doubt they will/can sound better than my current setup.

 

Advanced DSP can do more than just implement a crossover, such as time-align the output to the filtered channels. But my analogue 4th order crossover is already phase aligned at the cross-over frequency. I admit the low-pass channel is delayed by 360 degrees relative to the high-pass channel, but as yet I'm not convinced such a delay is audible at ~100Hz. And I'm sure the digital low-pass filter of the LS50W will have its own time problems..

A criticism I have of KEF is that they don't specify much about the subwoofer filter slopes or anything else to do with the filters. The low pass filter could well be time aligned with the high pass filter for a given subwoofer position relative to the mains, as the DSP would allow it. But I have no info. The subs measure very well with REW and if I was a bit more expert I should be able to use the measurements to move the subs forwards or backwards to time align perhaps. My R400b subs are currently inside the mains with their centres in line with the front of the mid bass unit, and subjectively after adding quite a lot of bass traps the bass sounds extremely good.

 

KEF seem to be moving backwards with subwoofer options for the LS50Ws unfortunately. All their subs are only available in black, whereas my R400bs are white to go with my white LS50Ws. The R400b replacements, the KF92s are twice as expensive and so a pair would now cost you double the cost of the LS50Ws. This tends to make me think I'm a bigger fan of KEF's active speaker/sub pairings than KEF themselves are.