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(John Atkinson) wrote:

"normanstrong" wrote in message
news:lmVlb.3955$mZ5.23026@attbi_s54...
Certainly more than half of the requirements you placed on your
amplifier design detailed in your first reply to this header disappear
if the designer knows the characteristics of the source and load ahead
of time. It is for this reason that I forever wonder at how few
speakers come with their own amplifier--at least in the home hi-fi
industry.

Hi Norm, I believe that the apparent restriction of customer choice that
this represents is a major impediment to successful marketing of an active
speaker. Even if the customer buys exactly the amplifier that the speaker
designer feels works best with his loudspeaker, and would therefore be
the one that could be supplied in an integrated package, it appears to be
important to customers to have the widest amplifier choice available.

I have a different take on this. An average "high-end" enthusiast may already
have a stack of amplifiers or at least a single expensive 2-channel amplifier
at his/her disposal. Anybody else has purchased a modrn receiver with 5
amplifier channels already built into the chassis.

People just don't see the reason to buy power again. The neo-phytes don't get
it. The high-enders never WILL get it; it's too apparent. So the best way to
better sounding loudspeakers will remain foreign to the market UNTIL the
current generation of computer users (who expect their speakers to be powered)
are in the loop.

Probably only Meridian has made much headway in the audiophile market
selling integrated loudspeaker/amplifier packages.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

PS: Your letter on the purported advantages of hi-rez audio media
appears in the ne (November) issue of Stereophile.

That take is likely a fair statement of the current market. Paradigm stopped
offering their Active series which was one of the better performing speaker
systems ever to reach the market. Yet few would buy them.