Active Standmounts

[MarkWinston]

Why arent active bookshelves more popular around these parts? Great speakers like the Hivi Swans M5A, M3A MKII, M3A, M500, M300 MKII and M300 with their active DSP wizardry should perform extremely well on paper. Is there a reason why these arent as popular as passives besides upgradability? Pound for pound, these mentioned speakers SHOULD stomp any speaker/amp combo double their price in measurements and real world listening. Am I missing something here?

 

[Rizzle]

I think actives bookshelves are really popular here.

 

[MarkWinston]

I think thats because Amir dont get enough of the good ones... thats a shame because these Swans slay the best of passives for the same price and more.

 

[Rizzle]

I don't know whether you replied to me or whether you're talking to yourself, but these are the best measured loudspeakers on ASR:

7 actives vs. 5 passives

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I don't know whether you replied to me or whether you're talking to yourself, but:

View attachment 150454

7 actives vs. 5 passives

price of each R3 is... 1000? what?

 

[HiFidFan]

When I drill down in the speaker reviews to "active" and "stand mount" + "studio monitor" I get about 40 results.

These are in the stand mount/bookshelf active monitor category.

 

[dfuller]

There are plenty of active standmount users here, myself included.

 

[Berwhale]

I think the 'Type' category is confusing. Many people would read 'Studio Monitor' as 'Active Studio Monitor' because most of them are these days. Perhaps calling them 'Acitve Monitors' would be less confusing. I also note that the iLoud MTMs are listed as 'Standmount' rather than 'Studio Monitor' and the Revel M105 is listed as 'Studio Monitor' when they should be 'Stand Mount', so I think the data is neads a bit of clean-up.

 

[Sancus]

price of each R3 is... 1000? what?

They're actually $1100 each now(non-discounted).

 

[Ron Texas]

Screw all these hi-fi companies for their price increases. As for active stand mounts, people pushing Genelec are buzzing around this place like flies. They kind of forget Genelec's are a much worse deal in the US than in Europe.

 

[Chromatischism]

Screw all these hi-fi companies for their price increases. As for active stand mounts, people pushing Genelec are buzzing around this place like flies. They kind of forget Genelec's are a much worse deal in the US than in Europe.

And not the best for those in the far field, so we have other choices here.

And here we really like our Hypex amps so passives are just fine.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

They're actually $1100 each now(non-discounted).

Sorry i deleted my previous post, i had a confusion
That's th right price

 

[fragzone]

I like my swan m200mkiii±.

Would love to know how they measure. I do think they are highly directional because the tweeters tend to reveal the speakers position all too easily if they are toed in line with centre position, a gentle toe in seems to vastly improve them in that regard. Imaging overall I would say is inferior to my Yamaha nx-n500 although that in reality is just a suped up studio monitor so not surprising. Everything else is far nicer.

Still want to replace them with elac dbr62 someday.

 

[Chrispy]

I think thats because Amir dont get enough of the good ones... thats a shame because these Swans slay the best of passives for the same price and more.

Did you/can you send a pair of Swans for testing?

 

[HiFidFan]

Screw all these hi-fi companies for their price increases. As for active stand mounts, people pushing Genelec are buzzing around this place like flies. They kind of forget Genelec's are a much worse deal in the US than in Europe.

One can't dismiss that the G's almost always produce great measurements though (near field). I have no dog in this hunt but am currently shopping for studio monitors. In addition to price and typical measurements I look at build quality, noise floor (tweeter hiss), etc.

 

[MarkWinston]

Did you/can you send a pair of Swans for testing?

Im located in thailand, so that is out of the question. I totally would if i was in the same country as Amir, in fact I would send him every worthy speaker I could lay my hands on.

 

[MarkWinston]

I don't know whether you replied to me or whether you're talking to yourself, but these are the best measured loudspeakers on ASR:

View attachment 150454

7 actives vs. 5 passives

I dont think studio monitors that are specifically made for nearfield is what I had in mind

 

[MarkWinston]

Im now wondering how would a good set of passive speakers with amp and something like the MiniDSP 2x4 HD compare to a very good set of actives like the Swans M5A

 

[Chrispy]

Im now wondering how would a good set of passive speakers with amp and something like the MiniDSP 2x4 HD compare to a very good set of actives like the Swans M5A

What would you use the minidsp for, integrating a sub? Or somehow actively bi-amping the speakers after removing the passive crossover? Or?

 

[MarkWinston]

What would you use the minidsp for, integrating a sub? Or somehow actively bi-amping the speakers after removing the passive crossover? Or?

To be used with Dirac or other room corrections and make minor adjustments via eq maybe?