Active vs. Passive Speakers: What’s the Difference and What to Choose?

The speaker system in your audio setup is the element that defines the sound. It’s a kind of frontier in the signal path: how the signal passes through the speakers will determine our listening experience. Let’s talk about passive and active speakers, understand their features, and figure out what to choose.

What is a Passive Speaker System?

Imagine a classic Hi-Fi system: a sound source (turntable, CD player, smartphone, etc.), a power amplifier, and speakers. In this simple setup, we have passive speakers because they require an external amplifier and a player to work. Essentially, inside the cabinets of passive speakers, you will only find drivers and crossovers (circuits) that distribute the sound between the drivers. There can be many designs, but there is no active part like an amplifier with multiple inputs on board. Passive speakers do not require power to operate.

What is an Active Speaker System?

These are speakers that have a built-in amplifier with the ability to receive analog and digital signals: Bluetooth, a phono stage for connecting a turntable, optical and line inputs. Active speakers can replace an entire passive system with a separate amplifier, player, and speakers. Active speakers require power to operate.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Passive Speakers

Pros

You can upgrade. The feature of passive speakers is that they allow you to experiment with sound. Take the Dynaudio Emit M20 bookshelf speakers — they’re not the easiest pair to drive because they have low sensitivity (86 dB). To make them sing, we need a powerful amplifier, but what a result! The character of the sound will change every time you pair the speakers with different amplification: a ROTEL will sound different from, say, a Marantz or TEAC.
An external amplifier can be adjusted to the speaker’s characteristics using tone controls: boost the highs or bass, adjust the overall signal level. Even the quality of the speaker cable will affect the sound, depending on the conductor (copper, silver, and others). Imagine the possibilities for experimentation!

You can relax not only by listening to music, but also by playing interesting games – le bandit slot, while having a lot of fun.

Always relevant. Passive speakers don’t have “perishable” digital components that can become obsolete in just a few years. We see how quickly codecs and Bluetooth generations age, and the capabilities of DACs break records every year. Imagine buying the most modern active speakers, and in 10 years, you have speakers with outdated software and inputs (not all speakers can be updated via an app). Passive speakers are an investment for decades — there’s simply nothing in them to become obsolete (we assure you, modern driver surrounds won’t dry out).
A good example is the Amphion Helium510 bookshelf speakers. The company managed to pack maximum linearity and transparency into them, regardless of the space where you listen to music.

Cons

System complexity. Passive speakers won’t play by themselves; they absolutely need an external amplifier, a signal source, and cables. This results in a whole stack of equipment that requires careful matching. If the amplifier and speakers are mismatched, one of these components could burn out and fail.

Takes up a lot of space. A separate amplifier unit (or even two: a preamplifier and a power amplifier), a CD player or network player, speakers — all this requires significant space. And let’s not forget about the cables that will run across the floor.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Active Speakers

Pros

All-in-one. The main advantage of this type of speaker is the ability to listen to music immediately without other components: they have a built-in amplifier, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a phono stage, HDMI, and much more. Take the Magnat Multi Monitor 220 as an example: one speaker is the “master” — with analog and digital inputs — and the other is the “slave,” passive. You can connect everything you need to the Multi Monitor: a turntable, a TV set-top box via optical, a CD player. If you don’t need any of that, just connect to the speakers via Bluetooth and enjoy high-quality sound from your streaming service.

Ease of use. Active speakers are ready to work immediately — you only need to plug them into the mains. You don’t even need connecting cables between the speakers anymore. For example, the KEF LSX have a full set of inputs on the rear panel for working with digital sound. You can create different setups: with a computer, network player, TV, smartphone — everything will sound great through a pair of compact KEF LSX. You can connect a subwoofer to create a home cinema.

Space saving. Active speakers are all you need for playback. Small bookshelf speakers can be placed on a desk or next to a TV; a separate equipment rack is not required. There are interesting active speaker options that come with a special hub. Among these are the DALI Oberon 1 C with the Sound Hub Compact. This is a very convenient solution, as the speakers are completely free of cables: all digital and analog outputs are on the hub, and the sound goes to the speakers via high-resolution Bluetooth (24 bit / 96 kHz). Only the speakers will sit under the TV, and everything else can be put away.

Cons

Separate power cables. Each active speaker needs a power outlet. To place them even just a couple of meters apart, you might need an extension cord because the power cables on active speakers are usually short. And if you want to build a 5.1 or 7.1 system, imagine how many outlets you would need!

Difficult to repair. If one of the internal amplifiers in an active speaker fails, repairing it will be difficult and expensive. You might have to replace the entire system.