Audiophiles understand the importance of speakers in a home entertainment set-up. This is arguably the most important decision made when purchasing and assembling the audio components for the system. It is certainly one of the first features shown off when fellow audiophiles drop in for some aural sampling.
When selecting speakers, consumers may find themselves confronted with the option of active speakers vs passive speakers, powered speakers, or some combination. To make life more difficult, not all vendors and experts agree on the usage of those terms. We’ve attempted to clear up the confusion and spell out some of the strengths and weaknesses.
Defining Active, Passive, and Powered
The terms passive, active, powered, and unpowered are often confused and used incorrectly, or at least interchangeably. The confusion lies in what, specifically, is being addressed with regards to the speaker. When used, these terms are either in reference to speaker amplification or speaker crossover. Hence, active is sometimes used interchangeably with powered, and passive with unpowered. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Active Speakers
In an active speaker, the word active commonly refers to the crossover components/system. The crossover components in an active speaker split the frequency band of the audio signal into smaller parts (low, high, and sometimes mid-range), which are then sent to individual speaker drivers designed to handle those frequencies.
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Get the checklist!Where active speakers electrical crossover components and powered amplifiers for each driver, these speakers are, themselves, “powered.” This is why active and powered are often used synonymously. So, when a speaker is referred to as an active speaker, it is nearly always referring to the crossover components, which by definition require amplifiers for each band, and separate power.
Incidentally, active speakers suitable for home entertainment and home theater solutions most commonly house the active crossover components and amplifiers within the speaker enclosure, but this is not always necessarily the case. In larger home theater settings, the crossover components and amps can be outside of the speaker. With an active speaker system, one will often see “active speaker” with “bi-amp” or “tri-amp” scenario, referring to active crossover and two or three separate amplifiers for the separate drivers.
Bart LoPiccolo, National Sales Manager for Genelec, Inc., takes the definition of active a few steps further, explaining that Genelec’s speakers are active because, “they have active electronic crossovers before the amps, they have dedicated amps for each driver, each channel has protection, and there are room response controls per driver.” Active speaker proponents like LoPiccolo believe that an active speaker system has certain advantages over a passive system due to the fact that the crossover components, amps, drivers, and speaker enclosures are all manufactured with one another in mind.
Passive Speakers
In contrast to the active speaker, passive speakers feature:
- passive crossover components, which split the audio signal and send each band directly to the loudspeaker drivers
- audio signals that are driven by a separate, individual amp
- components that are typically an arrangement of resistors, capacitors, and inductors, which split the signal and send each frequency part to the drivers
- a separate power amplifier that sends the full audio signal to the speaker(s)
Although high-end passive speakers can contain high-end crossover components, LoPiccolo says that, by nature, passive crossover components and passive speakers have some intrinsic drawbacks. “Passive crossover systems dissipate heat, and can lose as much as 30-percent of the amplifier’s power,” LoPiccolo states. “And as the crossover components heat up, the performance of the speaker changes. So a movie may sound differently toward the end than it did in the beginning,” he continues.
It is important to understand that a consumer integrating a passive speaker system into a home theater or home entertainment solution might be assembling the various components by piecemeal. In this manner, the consumer is left with the task of matching an amplifier for the particular passive speakers selected, or vice versa. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage to a passive speaker scenario. One has the freedom to upgrade the amplifier, or swap it out at any time, where in an active speaker scenario the amps are part of the speaker package. What you hear is what you get, generally speaking. But, the manufacturers of amplifiers don’t know what speaker system will be matched with their product, which is why amplifiers are “over-built” to accommodate a wide range of speakers, a move that results in more expensive and more power consuming amps.
Powered Speakers
Here is where things can get muddied. A powered speaker is technically one that has its own amplifier built into the speaker, and therefore plugs into a nearby outlet. However, a powered speaker is not necessarily an active one, as the crossover components within a powered speaker can be passive. Powered speaker systems have the advantage of being a bit more streamlined, compact, and portable—most speaker systems designed for desktop home computers, laptops, single-room application, wireless multi-room application (like Sonos), and easy all-in-one iPod-docking-and-speaker-solution fall into the “powered” speaker category. But unsuspecting consumers can get fooled into thinking that a powered speaker is better than a passive speaker. In truth, a powered speaker can still have the “amp-passive crossover-driver” chain characteristic of any passive speaker scenario.
“Powered speakers can cut costs, and reduce clutter,” says Logan Pabor, Distribution Manager at Audioengine, a powered speaker manufacturer. The built-in amplifier feature of a powered speaker solution enables wireless speaker scenarios, and eliminates the needs for additional, expensive components. “Set-up is much easier, and there are no external components,” adds Logan.
Conclusion
It would be inviting widespread criticism from all sides to claim one technology as superior over another in the active vs passive speaker vs powered or unpowered speaker debate. Certainly there are pros and cons to each system, and ways of perfecting (as nearly as possible) one system to “match” the performance of another. As with most such debates, the comments from those with experience are often as informative as the facts themselves.
by Ron Goldberg
This article was originally published on February 23, 2015 and was updated on September 28, 2015.

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What is the better speaker to use on free air, around 1500 people will be there.
I don’t know much about electronics and speakers. However, before upgrading my current speakers and system, I want to know a little more about passive VS powered. Wouldn’t passive speakers be less efficient and require more power to drive them? Am I correct about thinking an active cross over delivers more accurate sound than a passive?
I am also looking at the Revel Harmon 206, & 208, Monitor Audio Silver 7’s and the Martin Logan Motion 60 XL. For the money, which one in your opinion produces the best sound for the money. I have a Murantz SR7007 AV receiver. Will I need to use an amplifier that is hooked up to my Murantz and use my Murantz’s as a brain to achieve good sound, or can I get by by using my Murantz only to save money? Someone told me to integrate an amplifier with my Murantz because a receiver produces noise that comes from the tuner. I am surprised AV receivers have not eliminated the radio. Most people like myself never listen to radio on the sound systems. By eliminating the tuner, this would create more space to dedicate more money to upgrade the amplifier
A friend of mine just purchase an SVS 2000 subwoofer and hooked it up to a pair of NHT Classic Four speakers. He did a lot research before he purchased the SVS subwoofer. I thought the subwoofer would over power the base, but was pleasantly surprised because you can not detect them in the room. He also recently purchase a $2,000 Anthem AV receiver. He used Anthem’s microphone calibration system and his system really sounds great. I have a limited budget of $3,000 to $5,000 to work with. To avoid tension between my wife and I, it would help to not be criticized for spending too much money,.
Also, would I achieve better sound by using a 2 channel receiver and possibly an NAD amplifier and set up a listening room in our living room?
The problem I have is we use our family room for our home theater. However, the only layout we can use is by positioning the TV in the corner of the room next to the fireplace. The bad news is if we were to position two tower speakers in the room, we would need to position one tower to the left of the TV and the other to the right about 12 feet to 15 feet apart. According to your review, you stated you prefer to space your towers about 7 feet apart. Most people like my friend space the towers about 15 feet apart and they sound great to me.
One more question. People have told me Golden Ear speakers are basically Definitive Technology speakers because the owner of Golden Ear designed and owned Definitive Technology. Based on this, what are the differences between the Definitive Technology and the Golden Ear Triton 5’s?
Too many questions in one posting. Here’s a few general answers to some of them.
Passive nor active is necessarily more power-hungry. It depends on the overall design. I have electric guitar speakers that are 102db 1W/1m and are DEAFENINGLY loud with just 15W of power. They are entirely passive.
The crossover network in a speaker is not a huge contributor to inefficiency in most cases. The main advantage of active networks is not efficiency, it is precision and phase coherence. By far the greatest contributor to “easy to drive” is speaker efficiency. Speakers rated only 85dB or 88dB will take a LOT more power to drive than one rated 93db. 3dB is a 2:1 power ratio, so it takes twice as much power to produce 3dB more. Thus, a speaker rated 88db will require 100W to be as loud as a 94db speaker with only 25W pushing it.
As for gear, if you haven’t spent a couple grand improving the acoustics of the room you are listening in, you are wasting money on high end gear. A $2000 home theater in a box in a well-treated room will blow away a $50k system in a room that is an acoustic disaster of reverberant comb filtering. Setting up dedicated listening space is *always* a good idea if you can do so.
The space between the speakers can be as far as the distance of the listener from them, if you are willing to aim them to the listening area. My DefTech BP2000s (yes, the old originals) sound good this way. Try to create an equilateral triangle between listener and two main speakers. The speakers can be closer together, of course, but don’t be afraid of wider spacing if you aim them right. Again, room acoustics plays a huge role, and placement matters very much because of how the room reacts.
Never heard of Golden Ears. When I bought my DefTech BP2ks, I stopped speaker shopping.
Active Speakers vs Passive Speakers: Which to Use? It is depend on your need. Active Speakers have a built-in amplifier without the need for an external amp. While Passive Speakers are driven signal by a separate, individual amp.
Active Speakers vs Passive Speakers: for my experience i like active speakers then passive speaker because it convenience of not having to carry additional amplifier racks…
I think passive speaker is best, thank you for sharing your valuable article.
I need to replace my Vintage B&O 2600s. A 2 way with good definition. They are ruined and cannot be re-furbished. I now want to replace. I think I would like an above 90decible pm, but with similar sound. I am told that a 100w Vidal driver will do the job. Or any other thoughts? also what tweeters. Pls note, I am not technically oriended and only the sound reproduction will tell me if i am happy. Vereeniging. South Africa
There ideally should not be any comparison between active & passive speakers as these are two distinct different categories. The underlying difference in their working makes their performance different as well. To create optimum performance it is always advisable to use both of these in a proper setup. If you have good receiver or active speaker, then you can feed the output to a passive speaker or passive soundbar. If you want to complement your TV’s in built speaker system, then active speaker is the answer.