I made some speakers, and designed them to be active, outside the box. One of the things I have seen repeated here, is the amount of extra boxes for amplification, you are going to need, a minimum of 3, and possibly 6 for a 3 way speaker. That does not have to be the case, I have a high quality, and high power 6 channel power amp, all in one enclosure. It uses the well respected Hypex modules, and gives a healthy 875wpc into 4 ohms, split 500 bass 250 mids and 125 highs. There is of course one more box for the active crossover.One of my reasons for starting this thread was to see what people actually know about how actives are configured.. it’s interesting to see the responses.
As others have said, to me the biggest advantage, is having the power amps after the crossover, and driving each speaker individually. I also use some DSP (parametric filters), and time alignment, which I find beneficial, but of course that is down to the individual.
For those who may be interested, the amp I have, is made by one of our own, Stefan of KJF Audio,