barefoot

These kinds of discussions are always fascinating. We learn so much, not about technology, but rather the human brain's propensity to allow superstition to creep into every little nook and cranny. ***That was the calm and considered response, after my initial burst of laughter from reading the thread title!

Hi Ricardo, There's more to the voicing characteristic than these on-axis responses would suggest. Since we don't live and listen in anechoic chambers, the total power radiated into the room at each frequency, and then reflected back to the listener, plays an important role in the perceived spectral balance of a speaker. This is even more of a consideration in home listening environments, because they tend to be more lively than recording studio control rooms. Precisely manipulating these variables is part of art and science of well designed speaker. Cheers, Thomas

Active vs Powered: I can confidently say the loudspeaker industry consensus is "Active" means having power amplifiers driven by a line level crossover. The crossovers themselves are not necessarily active, but in practice they are almost universally active. Active speakers with passive line level crossovers do exist, but they are exceedingly rare. Active speakers with amplifiers housed in separate enclosures also exist. However, they are less common and tend to be large midfield and main (in wall) monitors. The vast majority of active speakers sold around the world are all-in-one units with active electronic crossovers. "Powered" means a passive crossover driven by one or more amplifiers attached to the speaker cabinet. In other words, it a passive speaker with one or more amps piggybacked onto it. Having multiple amps in the case of a Powered speaker means the passive crossover is bi-amped, tri-amped, etc. Most powered speakers have only a single amplifier on board. And powered speakers in general are much less common than Active. Active vs Passive in recording studios We'll ignore the legacy Yamaha NS-10m since it's been discontinued for some years now. New active studio monitors outsell passive monitors by more than 30 to 1. So, active monitors are by far the norm in studios today. Voicing of studio monitors vs Hi-Fi speakers I can also confidently say there are no consistent or typical voicing characteristics that distinguish studio monitors from Hi-Fi speakers. Models of both families are, frankly, all over the place with regard to every measure of speaker performance. The only fairly consistent differences I can see have more to do with "logistics" rather than sonics. For example, studio monitors tend to spend less on aesthetics. Monitors also tend to have balanced inputs, level controls and protection limiters (since the often deal with raw uncompressed tracks). In my experience, the pro audio retailers demand a smaller retail markup than Hi-Fi retailers. Pro audio is less lucrative for both manufacturers and retailers in the short term, assuming you have a popular product. However, it's also far less fickle than Hi-Fi. So, once you establish a good reputation in pro audio (not easy), it is easier to maintain a profitable and sustainable business in the long term. But with regard to actual sound quality, accuracy, "forgiveness" and the like, I really don't think there is any blanket distinction that can be made.

Ideally you want to place the speakers as far away from reflecting surfaces as possible. Reflections, especially higher frequency reflections will, interfere with the direct sound coming from the speakers to your ears, causing response peaks and nulls. So, placing them on stands behind the desk is probably a good idea. I actually wouldn't worry as much about the computer monitor being closer to you than the speakers. That will mostly just cause secondary reflections, first from the back of the monitor heading away from you and then off of the front wall back towards you. Secondary reflections are typically more dispersed and, hence, less problematic. You will also get diffraction off the side edges of the computer monitor. Since these diffracted waves tend to be in line with direct waves from the speakers, they tend to be in phase as well. So they don't perturb the direct signal from the speakers as much. Placing the speaker down low on the desk itself, whether on isolation pads or not, is the worst thing you can do with respect to reflections. This puts the reflecting surface very close to the speaker, making the interference effects quite strong. It will also push the strong interference up more into the mids and upper midrange where it has the biggest negative effect on imaging. I hope this helps!

Yes, each speaker has 2 active 7" subs. They are designed as nearfield studio monitors, which is very similar to "desktop" use. Cheers! Thomas