active speakers?..

[bafke]

Just a little question..a friend of mine wants some new speakers and was thinking about an active pair..

As I have a pair of b&w..should I convice him to go the passive way?
Is the sound quality that much better or do you guys have any other convicing facts?
Because this is a dia hard audiophile forum...your opinion counts
It's just that I see no posts about active speakers and that I think it's better to have one decent amp

active = a build-in amp..correct? (excuse me..I'm dutch and not really familiar with all the terms )

Thnx
Bafke

[walker]

Active speakers have the ability to out perform passive crossover speakers particularly at high volumes but at a cost.
Also there are 2 styles of active setup, the fully engineered solution were the crossover and amps are built in to the speakers and those where the amps, speakers and crossovers are all separate items and need to be intellegently adjusted. The second approach is not for the faint hearted, (untrained).
If your friend has a very limited budget he might get a better sound with a passive setup.
If he has a more flexible budget and likes to fiddle, actives have much to offer, particularly if he like his music a realisic volumes.

Regards WALKER

PS I have owned a few actives and passives, for low level easy setups I use passive but for the real thing...

[cm961]

IHMO,

If you are going to use a cheap passive crossover, then you should probably go active. I've found that passive crossovers don't sound very good, although I've never dealt with one with decent components.