How many time did we had this question. We shoud really have some better partitions in this forum. This would allow "stickies" at the start of each section. And the active vs passive will need one very bad.
From my experience, they are numerous advantages for active monitors :
- Completely different margins in the pro audio sector than in the hifi sector, specially for the resellers (30 vs 150 percents). = better price performance ratio.
- Less voodooesque technolgies.
- No amp case (greatest fee for the building of an amplifier).
- less crossover shinanigans (even if it's not excluing a proper phase setup).
But they are downside to them :
- Rarely possibilities to listen to them due to less selling points
- The monitors for listening in hifi rooms are called "Midrange monitors", they are essentially used for mastering purposes and are not cheap because of they status of tools and the great amount of care in their setup.
- Nearly always black finishes. Even if it's slowly changing now (backes & müller, KS Digital, ect).
Hifi myth is : That monitors will always sound better than hifi speakers. What is not true. Although, you have hifi speakers that have all the characteristics of good monitors (PMC, Phonar, ATC, Harberth, ect...).
Another thing is : Not everybody is liking monitor-like sounds. You have a market for not really realistic speakers and they are selling very well (ProAc's D18 for example, Triangle, B&W 800 series (D2), ect..).