active loudspeakers

[Audio_Karma]

The all new Kii Audio Seven Active Speakers were one of the very best sounding speakers at the 2024 Warsaw Show WOW !..

https://www.hifipig.com/audio-video-show-warsaw-2024-report-part-2-the-sobieski/

Here's some reviews on the older Kii Audio Three Active speakers ! WOW....
With MEASUREMENTS !..
https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/kii_three/

THE FUTURE OF SPEAKERS !...
https://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/kii-three-bxt-active-digital-speakers/

https://www.kiiaudio.com/events-and-reviews/

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/kii-audio-three-bxt

 

[KlausR.]

For Neumann the obvious choice would have been the K+H O500 - only that they don't produce them anymore, which is a real shame. I once had the chance to hear the O500 at the Neumann development site near Hannover, and it was a really breathtaking speaker.

View attachment 69985

Since this post back in 2020 I've been told by the designer of the K+H O500C that when he got the green light they produced 400 pairs in one go and sold them from the warehouse. I still have those speakers (serial nos. 26 and 33), now 23 years in use, still going strong.

Klaus

 

[Birdwatcher]

I still have them too, mine were the very last pair sold new officially from the factory in 2012. Fantastic units, and some of the historically important speakers, one of the first of its kind with moulded waveguides and digital FIR filter, with the outstanding ATC 75mm dome driver.

 

[OrigTweaker]

Meridian DSP9

 

[Flamingo]

I love my Backes&Mueller BM Line20

In addition to the excellent price-performance ratio of these not exactly cheap speakers, I don't have to search for suitable power amplifiers and speaker cables, but rather I can enjoy the music that these speakers transfer into the room with a liveliness.

 

[Jägerst.]

Most actively configured speakers are bundled all-in-one solutions (even incl. DAC's and streamers), and as such rightly called 'active speakers,' but active config. can also be had with outboard components like in my setup pictured here. Longer cable runs, yes, but still active qua active with the (DSP) filtration done prior to amplification on signal level. Bundled solutions often have a smaller size factor, but it's nice to see larger examples like the Backes & Mueller model in above post, ATC's and other. Maybe we are now witnessing more of the physically larger active speakers (even outboard configured from the likes of Bryston, Sanders Sound and a few others), but if one intends to go even further size-wise and be less restricted in the choice of the particular speaker design/principle and drivers, then outboard active lends itself naturally in combination with a DIY-mind and entrepreneurial spirit.