My main system featured a Peachtree Audio integrated amplifier. I lost my home in a wildfire this year and now I essentially live in a guest bedroom while my new home is being built. I am incredibly grateful to the people at Peachtree Audio who gifted me a pair of their M24 powered speakers. They sound great for their size, were dead simple to setup, look good, and being able to listen to records again has really helped me a lot to feel normal.

just bought the edifier R2000DB Active Bluetooth-enabled Speakers. Put it on Standby, Optic In, Line-In, BT-In and NOOOO sound or noise from a hearing distance of 1meter and it is connected to my HTPC. so Yeah, cool.... absolutely bang for your buck quality sound without having to bother with racks and dedicated power-supply treatment. Meanwhile, my separates are sitting in another room collecting dust because it only serves it purpose when I want to watch a movie or isolate myself for some listening time. Which, in this day and age, is practically no time

You didn't mention the most important reason for getting powered speakers. Crossovers. When implemented correctly, active crossovers make a pair of powered speakers perform as good, if not better than passives with separates costing much more.

I love my Fluance Ai60s. I think the active (powered) speakers are the future for bringing more people towards Hi-Fi.

Not all of us can afford thousand dollars for a hifi rack

@thomasalexand

Жыл бұрын

And pairing components, regardless of budget, and there's room condition to consider, can be a nightmare.

Not sure what ATC would make of this video!

@canaridissident7309

4 ай бұрын

Nor PSI Audio.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford what rich audiophiles own. For a complete system I would need to wait months or years or make a huge charge on my credit card. My powered Klipsch speakers sound fantastic for the money. You enjoy your Mercedes, I chug along in my Hyundai. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to afford what you like, but I’m not going to wait or maybe be alive that much longer. I will add... that I do appreciate the second part of your comment where you do find usefulness to the powered speaker design. I, as a consumer and an audiophile (lover, friend of...) , expect these reviews to tell me the differences in a product when all other consideration are equal: which powered speaker is the best sounding, not how it does not compare to much more expensive ones. That last one is the reason I stopped buying car, stereo and the like magazines.

I've recently purchased a pair of powered ADAM Audio T8V Studio monitors for my music production room, they are the nicest, clearest speakers ive had, no noise at all and outstanding clarity.

I completely agree with your analysis: well done!

Thank you for turning me on to Crippled Black Phoenix. I just discovered your channel and enjoy it very much.

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

My pleasure S MakFootball :)

Very well thought out "pro" and "con" discussion. I have a pair of Dynaudio BM5a nearfield monitors at my desk and they have served me VERY well for almost 10 years. Everything else in the house are conventional amp/speaker combos.

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Very nice of you to say so, morrisonAV. Thank you. The Dynaudios are very nice too.

Very well thought out video's and proper quality. You need way more subscribers!

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Very nice of you to say, Vincent H - and you're right! I wish!

Use Audio Engine HD6 and A2 for computer audio. Been very happy with what they can do. Certainly a great improvement over built in speakers inside a laptop or monitor.

The points you make are valid. However, I'm writing this in 2023, and the Q-Acoustics M20 powered speakers for just under £400 are wonderful. I purchased them after watching A British Audiophile's review. I have the powered speaker connected to a subwoofer.

Extremely happy with my Fluance AI40s, listening to iTunes in my office.

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mike - the AI40s are pretty new to me - glad you like them.

Still relevant in 2022 as an overview. I have the Kanto YU4 speakers in my office running off a MacBook via an iFi Audio Zen DAC. A Kanto Sub8 subwoofer augments the mediocre bass of the YU4. The speakers are on stands and about 1.5 metres from my listening position so I guess that qualifies as near field. It is a solution which meets my needs but is enjoyable too.

No powered speakers for me. The 47 Labs Shigaraki amp blewed a Krell KSA 80 out of the water. The only amp little amp that feeds the Jean Marie Reynaud Offrande in my main set in a proper way. In the bedroom: a great solution though for near field use! I use an single Audiopro T10 and a Addon sub in a mono set up. Great review! Thnx!

I love my proper system but I wouldn’t be without a couple of Sonos speakers for radio and immediate listening. There’s a huge trade off in sound quality but it’s the convenience and being able to link them around your home.

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Absolutely, Ricochet, the convenience and practicality aspects of hi-fi are very important.

Thanks... I'll watch it at home ...

I have Edifier powered speakers. They are great in the spare room on the laptop 😉 powered Vs active... I think I know the difference.... 🤔😏😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I'm looking at the Jamo S801PM with S810 for my next speaker purchase. Powered is definitely the value option if you're not willing to fork out more that £500 for a half decent soundbar, most of which will be duplicating a lot of the features you already have on your TV. So considering that, powered provide extra value. And if you buy from a brand who only make speakers, the inherent value of the purchase increases further as you're most likely to get better sound delivery than a similarly priced soundbar.

Got a pair of PMC DB1A(ctive) speakers. They are outstanding. Sure they are not suitable for big rooms, but when you sit in front of them they really "open your ears". So btw, studio monitors are most often active ones. Many self claimed "audio-specialists" say studio monitors do not sound "warm" (or choose any other defintion) etc... Well... i think, speakers should not sound in anyway. You should not hear the speaker but only the music. However, I really can recommend PMC. The "living room" products of them, like the "Fenestria", I never heard though, and they are out of my price range. Also i am not willing to spend extra money on expensive varnish for example. For the louder part, i got an old Turbosound horn system for parties in the garden behind my house. And i must say, listening to music outside on the meadow is really great. You have to do really much to a room, to get this purity in sound. I am happy to see more videos of you, subscribed!

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing that folx lox. I must grab some PMCs and give them a review...Thanks for subscribing too!

@poonnapap.3856

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the insight! I was considering buying them for my turntable set up that is right in front of my bed in a small room so this is encouraging 😅 I was worried

Thanks for making the point about noise. A BM engineer once put it this way: “Whenever you add an amp onto a (previously) passive speaker, the sound gets better”. I admit that was decades ago, and of course BM is passionate about active speakers. Thoughts, or maybe the question is: What do the BM sound like? Oh, one final thing: Cost savings with BM or the like. Nope.

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Sorry Helmut - what do you mean by 'BM"? Sorry for being thick.

@HelmutRockstroh

4 жыл бұрын

The Audiophile Man Oops. My bad. Short for Backes und Mueller: www.backesmueller.de/en/home.html (Link to English (EN) version of their homepage)

Hi, is a good choice to buy Marshall woburn2? One or two?

@TheAudiophileMan

3 жыл бұрын

I'm afraid that I've never heard this one. I'm in the UK and I've yet to see anyone over here offering samples for review.

Maybe I missed it, but a set of powered speakers ensure, one hopes, that the amplifier, dac etc are optimised for the speaker. I have been using powered speakers since the early 80's with great effect. Today I use a pair of Beolab 8000 speakers. I bought them less than a year ago. Such a simple way to enjoy a sound that I really enjoy. The main source is an Allo Boss dac/streamer with an ancient Beocenter 9000 working as preamp.

The ae1 active blow every other speaker up to 2k out of the water in my humble opinion

Hey audiophile man how is the quality of a Klipsch rp600m is it any good and how will it compare to a Dali oberon 3 bookshelf

@TheAudiophileMan

3 жыл бұрын

I'd lean towards the Dali speakers, given the choice.

@lyndonramchatesingh105

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks audiophile man

@lyndonramchatesingh105

3 жыл бұрын

Hey audiophile man would u be able to tell me what you prefer between a onkyo tx nr696 or Yamaha rx a880 cnet says onkyo

@lyndonramchatesingh105

3 жыл бұрын

Hey audiophile man also how is the covid in england I know they have closed the borders so no one can travel

ATC 50 active pro put anything through them love them .

I have some 15 year old Fostex nearfield monitors that are at the moment doing my “Hifi” duties. The sound of them can be great, but I need some better sources. The problem is a house move has made the positioning of the speakers, lets just say ‘awkward’ or at least ‘not ideal’. So while they were great for my once existing home music studio, I am now considering a change back amp and speakers. My main problem is that I am still limited to the awkward room and the wife not wanting to change the furniture. The units will still have to be on a less than suitable unit and the speakers too. Not sure I will gain much from from separating the amp and speaker, as the rest of the positions will be compromised. I am still going to do it though, as I’ve got so bored of having to change the volume from tiny little knobs on the back of each monitor lol.

@TheAudiophileMan

3 жыл бұрын

As I say, powered speakers certainly have their place and are recommended for certain situations but, even if your positional options are limited, if you can separate your components, it will bring a sonic benefit. You can lower vibration by adding isolation under each chassis too, which will help.

Love my Yu6💙✌

Im getting passive i live with family at the moment so I can't get anything too huge and moneys tight but the reason I'm getting passive is so I can tune the sound and fine tune it with amps sources (possibly cables if I find they do make a difference personally) so if there's like a glaring fault with the signature of the speaker I can swap out components to make them more pleasurable

@31cify

2 жыл бұрын

Great! Well I'me sure Paul could give you a few pointers there. He likes both types really and he admits it.

@hvskyline1368

2 жыл бұрын

@@31cify I bought the elac debut b6.2 with a topping E30 and a cheap Chinese amp till I buy the Cambridge AXA35

@31cify

2 жыл бұрын

@@hvskyline1368 A cheap Chinese amp? Well then keep us all posted on here about how that performs. You sound like you've got big ambitions in hifi.

@hvskyline1368

2 жыл бұрын

@@31cify it sounds decent not too terrible I heard the axa35 and I preferred it in my system over all the other sub 500 dollar amps

@hvskyline1368

2 жыл бұрын

@@31cify oh and I have a ifi zen blue Bluetooth reciever

...so which ones do you recommend?

@TheAudiophileMan

2 жыл бұрын

That would depend on your budget.

Its interesting that many of your commenters seem to have leapt on the disadvantages and ignored the pluses you've mentioned. I've got both and both have their pros and cons. Pro audio has relied on powered speakers for decades - including some very expensive studio monitors from companies like ATC, PMC and Focal. If the people who are producing the music I listen to - very little of which is purely acoustic or unaccompanied vocal - are willing to endure the noise you're describing here, who am I to turn my back on active speakers ? Cheap speakers are cheap speakers - regardless of design - and good engineers find ways around the problems they're faced with. Andrew Jones spent a lot of time talking to skeptics at shows when Elac released his first active speaker - I wonder how you would feel after an hour or so with him. I'm not a fan of including anything other than the speaker amp in the housing, but that seems to be where the industry is headed - assuming the designer/manufacturer is prepared to spend the money on shielding, its not the end of the world. Just as none of us have the 'perfect' room, do we really expect that we will have the 'perfect' speaker ?

@TheAudiophileMan

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Arthur :) Yes, I have heard good stuff from powered designs. I've reviewed a few on my website. It's like any piece go hifi, I suppose. I've heard good/bad amplifiers, good/bad CD players. Powered speakers are no different. They just present their own set of unique challenges to the designer, people like Andrew Jones. Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

Couldn’t the same be said for passive crossovers in a loudspeaker?

@TheAudiophileMan

3 жыл бұрын

Couldn't what be the same, Tony?

@tonyhodgkinson4586

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheAudiophileMan Vibration from the drivers affecting the sound of the passive crossover inside the speaker cabinet.

@TheAudiophileMan

3 жыл бұрын

Gotcha - the crossover is part of the inherent speaker design, an amplifier is not. It's external to the speaker design. A designer of a powered speaker tries his darnedest to accommodate the amp in a speaker cabinet. By doing so, he cannot fail but introduce a host of damaging high-frequency noise and a gamut of vibration so his job is a hard one.

I have none of this noise that you talk about in my active speakers. Mine sound crystal clear particularly because they are well made and there is nothing detrimental there in the amplifier to cause this so called noise. I imagine cheap ones might not sound that great but so do cheap amps, its all a matter of buying quality.

@TheAudiophileMan

2 жыл бұрын

I wasn’t referring to the more obvious mechanical, electrical, etc noise but high-frequency noise which veils delicate detail. It’s the sort of noise that you tend to only notice when it’s been removed.

I dont agree with the first comments. Cant one see the compromises of passives? Drivers with passive crossover networks and no control of how this will be powered. Say a Kef with a recommendation for 30-180w amp. The driver impedance dips as low as 3.2ohms. Someone hooks up a 30w 8R amp that's good to 45w at 4R. How will this amp deal with dynamics at higher volumes? Not well. They hook a 180w amp but the amps most linear performance is past the typical spl levels the user listens to. So the speaker sounds pants for his general use. What about passive crossovers? Theres a convention to stick to lower orders (esp for hifi low to mid priced) to keep sensitivity figures up and also because amps that'll handle complex xovers at mid price is not a given. Also the performance of the passive crossover is affected by the behaviour of the drivers. We hear this sometimes when we crank up speakers and they get disjointed well before the amp comes even close to clipping. Now imagine dealing with these compromises with an active system design. The xover is active whether dsp or discrete analogue. The amp doesnt deal with the reactance of the circuit, its hooked directly to the drivers. Each driver is powered with the appropriate amp and each amp is amplifying only the frequencies the driver its drivingwill reproduce. Performance has become more predictable. The xover slopes are made steeper so theres no overspill of the drivers muddying the sound of each other where they overlap as an example. As far as physical noise from having electronics in a single chassis, we have far more sophisticated electronics than voltage or current amplifiers on jet fighter planes pulling Gs and vibrating more violently than any domestic speaker will ever do. I'm sure, tech can give a solution for the forces inside a speaker box. All in all, passives themselves are designs fraught with compromises. Actives can address some of those compromises at a cost. My issues with actives are the cheap lifestyle convenience versions. This is not my topic. A wholesome design specifically engineered to maximise the advantages of active crossovers and level matched power amps to each driver's needs, then why not. Plenty enough people put their trust on integrated amp designs why not put the same trust to 'integration' on the speaker side from reputable companies and designers.

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Many thanks for your thoughts and I appreciate the time you've taken to express them but let's not confuse powered speakers with active speakers. It can produce confusing arguments :)

👍👍👍

I would call them. Active speakers. Quads are powered. Nothing is free in this life. To heavy. Pain for upgrading. Not many hifi companies do great speakers and amps. Audiophiles nightmare

@TheAudiophileMan

4 жыл бұрын

Hi scottspinner1 - actives tend to apply a single amp to each and every speaker driver. Upping the complexity and expense. I was only really referring to generally powered speakers in this piece. I can talk about true actives in a later video.

I would love to buy a Hegel h95 and a pair of Amphion Argon speakers as I could get away without using a subwoofer, but cost of these prohibits this and will probably cost me in excess of £2600 and then there are quality cables to add! I have not been able to replace my old Denon amp which expired about 3 ago!! So I have not been able to listen to music properly it seems forever! I am seriously looking at purchasing a pair of Acoustic Energy AE1's I know they are analogue and come with 4 amplifiers, (2 in each in speaker) but my wife hates separates and the tangle of cables, so I thought these might be a good compromise. I could then buy a streaming device and only replace that when it becomes obsolete. I might also be able to get away without using a subwoofer. We live in a small cottage with 2 children and a dog so space is tight. Even then I still have to get the funding passed which will not be easy with a new yearly electric bill of £3500 !!!

This video needs an update. Powered speakers have come alone way in terms of sound, use and overall technology. The Tannoy Gold monitored speaker system (recommend the Gold 7s) have been tested as both near-field and normal main speakers with excellent results. Overall, you make some good points but in this hobby thing change rapidly.

@TheAudiophileMan

2 жыл бұрын

This video is not product specific so it still stands and represents the entire genre well, I think. It was released to offer an overview and to inform beginners primarily, who are unsure what a powered speaker actually is and the pros and cons of going into that direction of hifi. Also, if all of my videos featured all of the caveats listed in the Comments, then every video would be three hours long.

What would need to be done to see the difference, is to take out all the electronics of a powered speaker and connect it up externally

I will never own a powered speaker

I believe that the expressions: "all in one", "plug play" have become too seductive today. Lack of space is a relevant factor. Many people cannot audibly disrupt all this noise that happens with all this huddled technology. I still prefer a dedicated system where each one does its job !!! thanks for the explanation !!!

Never a fan of powered speakers. It's a huge compromise. Yes, they have gobs of value and a good way to afford an audio system, but separates are the only way to do it right. Buy the best you can afford and over many years time, upgrade until you have reached a level of enjoyment that makes you happy. Maybe for many, powered speakers with a built in streamer and DAC/phono preamp does just that.