A friend of mine many many moons ago had a big pair of twin full range drive unit, horn loaded lowthers, cant remember much about the amplification, but obviously no x-overs in the signal chain. They were amazing.
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In practice, these are irrelevant comments in the context of budget.
Interesting, but I’m guessing your referring to mixing and matching different brands, surely a properly implemented active design form the same manufacturer will (hopefully) address the pitfalls you mention.
I saw your comment re full range drivers after my comment above re Lowthers, great sound sans x-overs
Yes I think that is absolutely correct. Therein lies another problem. There is so little on the market. ATC, Linn, PMC and probably about 20 others in a market with hundreds of brands.
Naim have left the speaker business. But even so, I don’t think it makes any sense at all to choose a speaker just because it can be made active. The choice is so limited and you may not like them. I would always advocate choosing speakers based on whether you like them passive first and then if an active version is offered, consider that.
Active with Naim SNAXO is a bit of a dead end. You have legacy Linn or Naim or Audiovector speakers and Kudos. That might be great for 0.1% of the customer base. Bit pointless for everyone else.
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That’s pretty much what I was getting at.
Done active with naim amps and speakers, great, but really is it the best way to go these days, err NO, is my opinion, especially after trying different options.
As said if you wish to carry on trying to make sbl’s or sl2’s sound better, rather than throwing more amps, power supplies, cables at it, just spend that extra on some better speakers to start with
It’s like trying to make a fast hatch as quick as a supper car.
But then as normal, your money, your choice
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I think there are more companies out there quietly doing active, as someone else has noted, their perhaps overlooked as the trend for active has gone out of fashion and become a bit niche.
I agree with you about not buying a particular speaker just because its capable of going active.
However, I would without hesitation set out to build an active system with the source first approach. To me, inconvenience considerations aside, it just makes sense.
20 or so manufacturers plus Linn, Naim etc is still to me plenty of choice.
I think for me, I would say its only a dead end (not sure if I would totally agree) if one is going to be perpetually unhappy with their “HiFi” and want to keep chasing the upgrade merry go round with diminishing return.
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I mentioned Meridian as another brand that do active systems.
Nytech are another
You didn’t qualify your statement to which I responded as taking into account cost… My comments were absolutely not irrelevant comments in the overall discussion about the benefits of active and whether the improvement is worthwhile (as opposed to worth the cost). And several times through this thread, including my first post, I have referenced the cost aspect. Whether it is value for money would be down to the individual to decide, no doubt depending on the specific speakers and amps, and in the context of the room and the rest of the system.
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Source first?
If you read my first sentence, you will see that I did mention cost.
Apologies, you did, however whilst you had indeed mentioned cost, I had taken that as a statement of fact that cost (and convenience) were complicating factors making the decision as to worthwhile less simple than otherwise it would be (with which I agree), rather than leading from that into cost being reasoning for narrowing the comparison to better amp passive vs 3 lesser amps active.
I haven’t read all the thread but in answer to the OPs question Active is certainly different but Better is a point of debate.
Regards,
Lindsay
One other thing, if active is such the best way to do it, then why does naim themselves not use it on there own " This is the best we can do, Statement "
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With HiFi that’s nearly always the case, witness some of the punch ups on this forum over cables and such like 
To keep it affordable 
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Naim doesn’t make speakers - howerver, Statement power amps can be used active!
I would venture a guess. Any product carries with it a set of design goals. If Naims design goals included being able to offer the statement to any user, passive would surely have been at the summit of their goals.
And as IB says im sure i’ve read it can be made active. Somebody out there please do this and upload to YouTube. lol
Another thing is although I never got along with the SL2. I think if you have a room that suits the speaker, I would not think about upgrading. The speed and articulation and smoothness of the treble is somthing I havent heard together from many modern designs. But imo the SBLs are MUCH better looking. And yes i buy with my eyes as much as my ears.
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So, I don’t understand our discussion as I have never said that I don’t believe in active Naim being better than passive.
But with old Naim speakers or Kudos.
There are much better speakers than Kudos in the world market, which can surely give better results in passive vs active Kudos, if powered by 500dr or Statements.
I don’t understand why you think my last comment is silly. Modern speakers don’t do in 99% of the cases active crossover. So you can’t listen to active today, it’s a reality.
Active Naim systems exist of course, but it’s only with Naim speakers or Kudos.
I have heard Naim speakers in the past and was never involved by them.
So, for me, active is pointless.
But, for the god sake, I repeat: I believe that in a Naim system and speakers, active can sound better.