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About 10 years ago, I took part in a comparison of active vs passive ATC 100's.
There were 3 of us visiting, and we wanted to hear how good the 100As were for a professional installation. We brought along a pair of Boulder 500's (which I preferred to their much more expensive amps) through which we had been listening to passive ATC 100's. These sounded great, but as soon as we tried any much cheaper amplifiers, they lost a lot.
Alan Ainslie set up a pair of 100's that could be switched between active and passive. He told us that the actives would slaughter the passives. He was very very surprised when he heard the Boulders driving the passives! We (the visitors) all felt that the Boulder driven passives were slightly better than the actives, but the difference was minute and we bought a pair of actives - great value when compaired to the passives + 11K of amplifier.
About 10 years ago, I took part in a comparison of active vs passive ATC 100's.
There were 3 of us visiting, and we wanted to hear how good the 100As were for a professional installation. We brought along a pair of Boulder 500's (which I preferred to their much more expensive amps) through which we had been listening to passive ATC 100's. These sounded great, but as soon as we tried any much cheaper amplifiers, they lost a lot.
Alan Ainslie set up a pair of 100's that could be switched between active and passive. He told us that the actives would slaughter the passives. He was very very surprised when he heard the Boulders driving the passives! We (the visitors) all felt that the Boulder driven passives were slightly better than the actives, but the difference was minute and we bought a pair of actives - great value when compaired to the passives + 11K of amplifier.
