What is included however are 35 watts (LF) & 18 watts (HF) of on-board digital amplification. And since I've been using ATC SCM50ASL loudspeakers myself for almost a decade now, I don't need convincing on the merits of the active approach. No driver, no matter how meticulously conceived, can give back what a passive crossover network strips from the original signal. So apart from increased domestic affability—i.e. no hosepipe speaker cables required—active speakers have some very real technical advantages. From the outset, amplifiers and speaker drivers can be directly coupled to work optimally as a single system. The designer is able to link the two using a digital crossover/dividing network (here a FIR Finite Infinite Response type). The results? Signal paths free from a bunch of transparency-sapping passive components. And note ‘active' and ‘powered' speakers are not the same thing. Powered speakers utilise external crossovers. (A very thorough analysis of the relative merits of active and passive speakers can be found here).

Weighing in at 5kg apiece, sporting two small bass ports on the front baffle and measuring 28x18x21cm HxWxD, the drivers consist of a 5.2"/13.2cm aramid fibre woofer and a 1"/2.54cm urethane film-laminated polyester-fibre dome tweeter. Together they cover a frequency range of 50Hz-40kHz with a 2.5kHz crossover point. Often used for aerospace and military applications, Kevlar body armour being one example, aramid (a portmanteau of aromatic polyamide) is a man-made polymer. It's high in strength but low in density and specifically designed to transfer mechanical stress as efficiently as possible.