Are active speakers the best upgrade

I recently purchased a used active system (bi-amped with speakers) and can testify that the changes I hear are stunning. The biggest improvement is the entire system is less source-critical. This has allowed me to enjoy much more of my vinyl library without disappointment. The surface noise of generic vinyl pressings is greatly diminished. Music takes on a wonderful 3-D effect with a much wider and deeper sound stage. Any awareness that the speakers are the source of the sound is gone. The bass extension is almost frightening coming from such small drivers and enclosures. The last benefit is a feeling that the reproduction process is effortless.

Manufacturers such as Naim and Linn have been promoting the benefits of going active for quite some time. This is an interesting subject. I look forward to following the thread.

Happy listening, Patrick

Active eliminates alot of intermodulation distortion that happens in passive crossovers. Not to mention, with large woofers as the voice coil temperature rises the inductance changes, which in turn causes some phase shift, another advantage of active designs. Its amazing how few speakers companies are doing them since the advantages are so great. I suspect part of it is the marketability aspect-alot of audiophile's want to choose their amps and even more so if they are set on tube amps they won't even bother with an active system-since all the ones I've seen use ss (not that it has to be ss, but its for the better)

Have a listen to a Linn Aktiv system. 'Going aktiv', once you've got a good source, is the big upgrade that Linn advocates, and that Linn freaks swear by. Meridian takes it even further - straight from the digital source to the active speaker with built-in dac.

An active crossover system should offer much better amplitude control then a passive system. The active crossover design is speaker specific and will not transfer to different speakers. This is what the now defunct Waveform speaker line used. The tweaks hated these speakers. One question for them: If the Waveforms sucked then why aren't there any used speakers for sale?

First, thanks to the people here, I found out about ATC.
Many things were impressive. I don't listen to $15,000 speakers much so everything impresses me (not Wilson's) compared to what I own (Nautilus):
- I could hear 4-5 layers of tonality change a triangle being struck in an orchestra piece. I hear 1-2 on B&W. This happened with lots of instruments.
- My girlfriend didn't complain about the volume level. That's because there was virtually no distortion. I was shocked when she said she was fine with the volume. This has never happened before. The bass was big but highly damped. So the bass reverb did not hurt her chest. Neither one of us complained about the high's being harsh. Even on "hot" recordings. It was clear but not bright. I have become suspicious of Paradigm (for example) who may be using bright tweeters to give the perception of detail but on "hot" recordings, the trick becomes all too obvious.

So my gut reaction to this was the typical stereo enthusiast or audiophile is going crazy after wires, CDP, and DAC's which improve sound a few percent. All the while active designs go begging. But I would estimate they can give, like 10-30% improvements.

Also I believe the preamp can color the sound so one could use a tube pre or a tube DAC even if the amps are S.S. Or records too.

I don't need speakers which play 118 dB continuous. But on some level in this crazy hobby, I could see the $15,500 ATC 100's actually being worth it. The crystal clarity, lack of distortion, and effortless dynamics were awesome. ATC did have problems with soundstaging, naturalness in piano, playing at low volumes, and the open, expansive sound B&W does on vocals and the high freq's.

Bottom line: I want this in my system.

And I don't think it is possible in passive systems. If it is, please tell me how. Would a Triangle Celius on SET or JM Labs Micro Utopia do this? I can't think of anything else that might.

I read the Nautilus review online at Stereophile.com and it was informative on the lengths that B&W goes to. Their $40,000 Nautilus is active. Stereophile's article describes why they went passive and the problems it created on the 801's. People might want to check this review out.