Oskar Palm said:
So, im new to this audio thing. I am going to buy studio monitor speakers soon and i need to understand two termins: active and passive. So as i understand this far, for passive speaker, i need amplifier right?
Yes.
Oskar Palm said:
For active ones i don't need them right?
Again yes, as the active speakers have the amps buit-in.
Oskar Palm said:
And why would i need an audio interface and what are the DACs for?
The audio interface allows you to connect multiple sources (things playing music, from CD players to computers to mixers) into the speakers, and control the volume, etc. Quite a lot of active speakers have volume controls built-in, but they're often hidden round the back on studio monitors, so unless your source components have their own volume controls, it's sensible to have a separate volume controller between the sources and the speakers, for convenince if nothing else.
DACs (digital to analogue converters) turn music in the form of digital data into analogue music you can hear (and here I'm simplifying a bit): if your CD players. computers and mixers, etc have decent digital to analogue conversion built-in, you can just connect in analogue to the monitors, and you're done.
There are also some monitors with built-in digital to analogue converters, able to take a digital feed from, say, a computer, and convert it, amplify it, the whole thing. But these tend to be domestic models, not specifically designed for studio use, although some people do use these in studios.
It's also possible to buy digital to analogue converters with a volume control built-in, so you can just connect computer -> DAC -> active speakers.