Passive vs. Active - Sonic Differences?

[steveb]

I know the marketing materials of high end actives all say they tune the active monitors amplifiers to match the speaker requirements, but how much sonic difference is there really between say a Verve 12ma and a Verve 12m powered by a seperate amp? One thing I've heard is that actives can have better damping which should leader to better bass definition. Has anyone noticed this in "real life"?

 

[xrist04]

Some of the "active" designs include DSP processors and algorithms to improve things like phase alignment between the LF and HF elements. Generally these methods improve the overall clarity of the system.

You can certainly provide your own phase-alignment, if you like, with a crossover and an output processor capable of providing small amount of delay between LF and HF channels.