I've thought about actives. Mostly the Paradigm 20 & 40's they used to make. But you know what? I'd have a hard time giving up my two Acurus A200x3's... I know that the sound *might* be better. But there is something comforting about looking at 70 lbs of sheet metal, transformers, capacitors, and the subdued green LEDs...

That's very true, but the fact that the crossovers can be low-level actives, either digital or analog, and the amps can be tailored to the drivers gives a great opportunity for improvement. Not all opportunities are capitalized on, however.

I'd like to see all of my powered towers with fire wire ports on the back of 'em. A little dial on each one with, say, 16 numbered positions. Run all of them into a hub somewhere, then into your processor (or better yet, run each to a wall plate that goes into your whole-house 1394 system). Go into your processor's config screen and indicate what the "address" of each speaker is at each position, L, R, C, LS, etc.

Each speaker also needs power, and has its digital amp & drivers all in the same box. Awesome!

Of course, the only thing that will prevent this (and probably will succeed) is RIAA paranoia & greed.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net