Powered speakers - confused

Timpd

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Jun 26, 2012
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I've just picked up the latest issue and skimming through saw the test of powered speakers ( is that different to active?) . It said of the Dali Zensor5 AX " needs careful positioning and partnering" . Partnered with what? I thought that was the whole point of powered speakers, they are self contained units. Am I missing something?
 

muljao

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Jul 18, 2016
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Self contained, yes. The review is on about the speaker cable running between.

Active have a different system for amplification. The Dali's are one powered, one passive, one driving the other
 

gasolin

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yes there is

I hate powered speakers since both speaker are not 100% identical

There is speaker cable between them, which there isn't between passive speakers

There is a difference in weight that has an effect when you play loud (bass) no diffrence with passive speakers

There is a difference in the internal volume because of one amp in only one speaker, so there should be a difference in the bass, again no difference with passive speakers

Active speaker (often studio monitors) have amps in both speaker, same weigh,same internal volume,same legnth of cable from the source to the speaker, same settings on both speakers they should sound the same playing an old mono record like passive speakers

Studio monitors is often bi amped with an amp for each unit one for the tweeter and one for the bass
 

bluedroog

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Powered speakers are passive speakers with passive X-overs whith amplifiers built in (usually stereo ones I believe), active have active X-overs with an amp channel for each driver. Powered speakers don't share the same design benifits of active speakers.
 

davedotco

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Confusion is easy in this area as there simply is no proper terminology in consistent use.

To try and make this clear, 'powered' and 'active' are terms that define how a loudspeaker is driven. As pointed out above, 'powered' speakers are simply normal passive speakers that have a single amplifier built in, ie passive speaker plus single channel amplifier in one box. In hi-fi use it is common to put a 2 channel amplifier in one speaker, the second channel drives the second speaker via a length of regular speaker cables in what is known as a 'master/slave' configurations.

Active speakers on the other hand have no passive crossovers, the frequencies are divided by an active crossover that comes before the power amplifiers, one for each frequency band. These are single, individual and identical pieces.

The real confusion starts when you want to add functionality, say pre-amp functions, Bluetooth or what have you. For sound technical reasons, it is easier to implement this when the speakers are in a 'master/slave' configuration, so most 'full function' speakers tend to be powered, rather than active. The obvious exception being the AVI ADM9/10 series which are possibly unique in being fully active and configured as a 'master/slave'.

Most, though not all actives, tend to be simply line in, ie you will need a pre-amp of some sort to drive them, check out the description of the new AE1 Active in another thread.

So, to sum up, powered systems with added functionality like remote control and Bluetooth are rather like a sort of 'grown up' docking system, actives tend to be stand alone speakers, designed in the main to be run of a pre-amp, computer or in the pro-world, some sort of mixing desk.
 

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