Typical lifespan of actives v passives?

[Trell]

I have never seen an active speaker blown or the internal amp fried in my entire life. (I think I'd have to own JBL 7 series speakers to experience that.)

I have seen multiple blown speakers and broken AVRs.

I've also never seen someone warning about active speakers actually mention multiple encounters with the issue.

There was an issue with the black goo in Rokit monitors, but I don't think you're going to have those issues with Kali. Things look pretty clean inside.

In the end only the manufacturers knows the failure rate, and I would very surprised if they willingly disclosed that.

 

[Jim Matthews]

But my wife’s A6 wagon—a beautiful car—required me to drive to the dealer to buy more of the proprietary D-zus-style clips for the skid plate, which could not survive a typical dirt road. We only kept that car a short while. Back to Lexus for her.

Nothing is as user-serviceable any more. I worry about our landfills.

Rick “a trained mechanic—on 70’s technology” Denney

Looks tidy - no problem.
Try getting a wrench in there.

The whole front end must come off, to change any lamp in the assembly.

 

[antennaguru]

I have never seen an active speaker blown or the internal amp fried in my entire life. (I think I'd have to own JBL 7 series speakers to experience that.)

I have seen multiple blown speakers and broken AVRs.

I've also never seen someone warning about active speakers actually mention multiple encounters with the issue.

There was an issue with the black goo in Rokit monitors, but I don't think you're going to have those issues with Kali. Things look pretty clean inside.

Nothing terribly interesting to see, the plate amps were just dead with nothing visibly failed. At the time I suspected that the failure of two of them was in the "Auto-Turn-On" circuitry, which I could not troubleshoot or reverse engineer as they had painted goo potting compound all over the printed circuit board. I made sure to buy replacement plate amps with manual power switches! The third plate amp that failed also fried the woofer's voice coil when it failed, which was obvious from the rubbing voice coil when manually moving the cone, so I suspect that was a different failure like passing DC into the voice coil. Again nothing visibly wrong with that plate amp other than it was dead.

I bought generic replacement plate amps from Parts Express - WITH MANUAL POWER SWITCHES. Then I had to fit them to the different shaped holes and screw patterns with sheet aluminum filler plates I made.

 

[redshift]

Looks tidy - no problem.
Try getting a wrench in there.

The whole front end must come off, to change any lamp in the assembly.

 

[SigbergAudio]

View attachment 141382

That BMW B58 engine is actually both reliable and highly tunable, and also an inline six, in many ways not that different from the old 2JZ of the Supra. We'd all love for Toyota to have developed their own, but when they didn't, they couldn't have picked much better.

 

[richard12511]

Never kept any action speakers long enough to test. The only comp I have are PC speakers, stuff like the Klipsch Promedia/IFI or Logitech Z series or going back to the far past, Monsoon speakers and Altec Lansing. Most of these were $300-600 PC speakers, so nothing that fancy. On average I’d say they last maybe 4-5 years before the amp croaks and needs replacing.

Whereas my Energy Veritas 2.2 speakers I’ve had for a good 17 years and going…and even when I bought them they were used and already had some years on them, I think they were built in the 90s…I could probably use these speakers for another 20 years no problem.

I’ve actually had the active Logitech $150 speakers now for 17 years. Still going strong.

 

[Trif]

I have never seen an active speaker blown or the internal amp fried in my entire life. (I think I'd have to own JBL 7 series speakers to experience that.)

I have seen multiple blown speakers and broken AVRs.

I've also never seen someone warning about active speakers actually mention multiple encounters with the issue.

There was an issue with the black goo in Rokit monitors, but I don't think you're going to have those issues with Kali. Things look pretty clean inside.

Funny you mention them, I just sent back some overheating 705Ps and got a pair of IN-8s to replace them.

Thing is, giving the designer control of the electronics is sort of a heaven sent benefit for them, especially with DSP hanky panky available. Seems to me, if you want the maximum performance from your speakers and don't want to hamper the engineers that create them, active monitors are the logical choice.


As a side note, we put insulation in speaker boxes to make them acoustically bigger. Who thought including a space heater was a good idea?

 

[EJ3]

I have my Frazier Super Monte Carlos (bought in 1977) & my Dahlquist M-905s (bought in 1990 that were/are 26Hz-20KHz +- 2 db). I have replaced the crossover caps. I run them with my NAD 2200's as a 4 ohm load per amp (one of my NAD 2200s was tested here). I see no reason to change them, although I have added a pair of subwoofers, crossed over at 80 Hz and powered by one of my NAD 2200's running them in stereo as a 2 ohm load.
At this time, I see no reason whatsoever to change my speakers.

 

[Lopsided]

I bought a 2008 A8l with 50,000 miles on it and thought, "What could go wrong?" It was a joy to drive, when it ran.

I spent the next 10 months discovering how much, and how often an overtly complicated (I mean deliberately - as a selling point) could I explicitly bring things to a halt.

Same here! Uncle got hands on a dirt cheap ‘07 A8L W12 and gave me as a gift. Turns out it was flooded in a local typhoon in 2018… And it burns approx. 1L motor oil per 1000km. Don’t have wallet to let somebody check valve stem seals, all 48 of them… Now it’s mostly parked and I drive mom’s Jetta, which consumes less than half fuel in the city.

But when it ran it was pure bliss Partly because it gave a huge ego boost to this unemployed young man!

 

[elvisizer]

Oh wow a w12 FLOOD car?
that's like . . . .what-did-you-do-in-a-previous-life-to-deserve-that levels of ouch.

 

[Lopsided]

Oh wow a w12 FLOOD car?
that's like . . . .what-did-you-do-in-a-previous-life-to-deserve-that levels of ouch.

The previous owner must tumbled in pain before deciding to sell it

 

[BobbyTimmons]

How many people have had active studio monitors fail on them? A lot of them seem remarkably robust over the years.

 

[EJ3]

.

Yes, I have a couple of thousand LPs, plus several hundred SACD and DVD-DAD/DVD-Audio discs, and a couple of hundred tapes. However, I got tired of fumbling through my 1100 CD collection and finally put them all on a little server in FLAC so I can easily search for music by Artist, Album Name, and Song Name - which brought order to that madness. Plus I regularly take that little server back and forth between both houses and plug it into either DAC.

I've got the quality I want on a couple of FM stations that I listen to. I can pickup a good, low watt jazz station that is 80 miles away and a couple other good high power stations that are a hundred miles away, as well as closer stuff that I like (with the local happenings, farmers markets, tractor shows, car shows and bands that I want to hear).
I'm looking forward to doing what you have done with a FLAC server and my collection LPs, DVD/Blue Ray and both reel to reel and cassettes.
But, it's travel time right now & I need to burn up some airline miles, so I'll be putting my mother, my wife and myself all over the place (both in and outside the USA).
A few years of buying everything with the credit cards AND religiously paying them off every month has created a situation that we must use them before they make them null & void.

 

[JiiPee]

As an example, at the moment Genelec web-site shows that their Certified Pre-Owned product selection includes a S30C model made in 1995 i.e. over 30 years ago. The speaker is now offered with a 2 year warranty.

 

[Ultrasonic]

As an example, at the moment Genelec web-site shows that their Certified Pre-Owned product selection includes a S30C model made in 1995 i.e. over 30 years ago. The speaker is now offered with a 2 year warranty.

Devil's advocate: we don't know that Genelec haven't made any sort of repair prior to sale. Not that I doubt some 30 year old models would still be working OK.

 

[Sokel]

As an example, at the moment Genelec web-site shows that their Certified Pre-Owned product selection includes a S30C model made in 1995 i.e. over 30 years ago. The speaker is now offered with a 2 year warranty.

Soft-dome mid, ribbon tweeter, that would need a good cleaning apart from the normal maintenance, drooling of old-timers must be all over it

 

[JiiPee]

Devil's advocate: we don't know that Genelec haven't made any sort of repair prior to sale. Not that I doubt some 30 year old models would still be working OK.

As far as I know, the Certified Pre-Owned in this context means that Genelec has checked and serviced the product. Whatever has been done, at least it shows that the speaker is still fully serviceable after 30+ years.

 

[Ultrasonic]

As far as I know, the Certified Pre-Owned in this context means that Genelec has checked and serviced the product. Whatever has been done, at least it shows that the speaker is still fully serviceable after 30+ years.

Yeah, definitely shows it's servicable. ATC similarly support their active speakers for a very long time.

 

[KL....]

Plenty of passive loudspeakers (component drivers as well as whole systems) from the 1950s are still around, in good working order, and in regular use. So, what's that, 70 years?

Keep us posted on the lifespan of the actives.
I'm guessing it is going to be rather shorter.

From my perspective, it is the "all in one box" aspect that subtracts from the attractiveness of active loudspeakers, since even the expensive ones will be economically unfeasible after a fairly short time (e.g., 2 to 5 years, albeit that's a "SWAG").

Thank you, @mhardy6647, Yes, for compareson, that suggests that Actives need to come with a 20yr warranty, reasonable, although Purchase Cost/Price will certainly be Higher (ie Bryston), won't it?

 

[Ultrasonic]

Thank you, @mhardy6647, Yes, for compareson, that suggests that Actives need to come with a 20yr warranty, reasonable, although Purchase Cost/Price will certainly be Higher (ie Bryston), won't it?

What? No passives come with 20 year warranties and many do have issues much sooner than this.

On both sides, just because there are examples working fine after any given time period, it doesn't mean all or even most do.