Powered Speakers vs. Passive Speakers: What’s the Difference & Which is Better? Tech Talk Episode 55 

A real down side of a powered speaker is that the built in plate amplifiers can fail after the speaker model is discontinued rendering the entire faulty active speaker investment a write off. With passive speakers, the amplifiers are a separate device, usually with better ventilation and a longer life expectancy. Active subwoofers can subject the actual amplifiers to pretty intense shock waves from the bass leading to solder joint weaknesses or capacitor failures. Passive speakers do not do this. Also each active speaker needs to cords long enough to reach them (power cord and a signal cord). Passive speakers need a single cable.

Thankyou brother!!

Thanks so much sir

A logistical argument for passive speakers is not being tied to a wall outlet. You can put a passive speaker anywhere, but every active speaker needs its own power source and cord. As a working musician, I have set-ups for both.

This was a nice video. For a while I was a little confused on "passive" and "active" speakers and what the differences are. This video (and other videos/articles on the subject) explains it pretty well. The rest of this comment might get a little long, but here's an interesting point about passive speakers: I can remember in 2013-2014 I was using a computer speaker that was lying around my house; my mom actually used to use it on her old laptop (that laptop is no longer usable and she doesn't have it anymore). When I listened to it, I was always under the impression that it was pretty quiet in volume, even if I had it plugged into my computer and had the volume on the computer turned up all the way (or nearly all the way). Well, no wonder, whenever it was being used it was pretty much trying to use the headphone jack alone as it's source of power... no connection to a power outlet or any sort of battery in sight! This has to mean, therefore, that the speaker is passive and not active, because it has no amplifier of its own. It's worth noting, though, that because it pretty much just uses that cable going into a headphone jack, you can connect it to pretty much anything. And that's where things started getting interesting in my experience of using the speaker: the resulting sound and volume I could get out of the speaker would vary depending on what I hooked it up to; I think that's mainly because different headphone jacks put out different amounts of power (and have different impedance values as a result of that). So that means some headphone jacks will drive the speaker more while others will struggle. The funny thing is, the absolute best result I got with that speaker was when I hooked it up to the headphone jack on my "Book Port Plus" (essentially, that's an electronic book reader, audio recorder and music player developed by the American Printing House for the blind, or APH for short). With the speaker hooked up to that device, I hardly even had to turn the volume up that much and yet I could hear it just fine... and then I turn the volume up to max and it seems to be so fucking loud to me! (Provided I play a loud enough recording or sound, of course). OK, maybe it wasn't really "that" loud (like 100 decibels or something) but certainly louder than anything else I connected it to, where I had to turn the volume up all the way to even hear it. In fact, I can still remember times when I'd turn it up that loud, then I'd pick the speaker up and position it in such a way that I could gently press the side of it against my chest (or even sit on the side of the speaker, in which case the other side would be sitting on a flat surface, like my bed for example), then I could really feel the vibrations from the music! I felt it particularly with frequencies in the 200-300 Hz range or something close to that, because a lot of music I was listening to on the speaker tended to have quite a bit of presence in that range, and so does the speaker itself. Why I was able to get the thing to go so loud on my Book Port Plus, and not as loud on other devices I tried, is still a mystery to me; It was almost as if the Book Port Plus had its own amplifier that was perfectly strong enough to drive that speaker so well! Sure, it's likely because the headphone jack on that device simply met the power requirements of the speaker, but there's got to be another reason behind it all: the speaker's sensitivity. Because, when we're talking about speakers or headphones, it's not all about the power requirements and wattage and so on... that's not really gonna tell you how loud it is. Sensitivity is very important. You could have a 10-watt speaker that can play significantly louder than a 30-watt speaker, because the 10-watt speaker is more sensitive (and more efficient) than the 30-watt one.. Another factor that may be at play here is that this speaker I've been talking about is not really that large either, so it doesn't really require some enormous amount of power; I'd say it's probably 8-10 inches tall, and maybe 2 or 3 inches wide from one side to the other, and maybe 4 or 5 inches from the front to the back of it (these are just estimations, but I think you get the idea). It's not really that heavy either, and with those dimensions factored in as well, you can see how it's actually fairly portable (I can still remember putting it into my backpack and taking it to school, then going to the school dorm and taking it out of my backpack and blasting music on it :)))). Unfortunately, this speaker is not as usable as it once was; I now can't get it to go as loud. No, it's not because I blew out the speaker from playing it too loud. It's an issue with the cable. The cable is fixed in place though, so it's not like I can just unplug the cable and plug in another one; I'd have to desolder it or cut it away or something to replace it. I also have to try and even find the speaker again... it's likely hidden away in my closet amongst a big pile of junk! I do need to clean out my closet anyway, so maybe I'll stumble upon it again when doing that :))). But if I can find it again and somehow fix the issue with the cable and get it working properly again, I think that would be awesome, and because it is a passive speaker, the addition of a little amplifier to drive it more strongly would be a nice idea. And as it's only a single speaker with only one channel of sound, perhaps if I could somehow obtain a second speaker exactly like it (same model and everything), I could hook them both up to a stereo amplifier and get a nice stereo setup! And if the amplifier was battery-powered, that would be even better; it would still keep the portability factor that I enjoyed about using the speaker because I could use it even when not near a power outlet. But I do also have a little portable power bank that could also power the amp for when I'm not near the wall outlet, so that's not a bad idea either :))). Then with that amplifier, I could make the speaker go even louder and make the side of it vibrate my chest even more :))))))))))))))))). Well, if you've made it this far, then congratulations... I just wrote a whole book for you in the comments section :))))))))))))))))) hahahahahahahaha!

Hi boss, I'm planning to set up a live band, but I'm a little bit confused which system I go, passive or active system for good quality sound system. I need your advice please.

Also there is a battery PA speaker called Bose S1 Pro and JBL EON ONE Compact and pro.

I’ve been told using an amplifier with passive speaker setup with vinyl will sound better vs using powered speakers. Thoughts?

Hey man tbh, I’m so confused on this, does it matter if I plug in powered or active speakers into my Scarlett interface to make music?

One obvious question I thought you would address is: are powered speakers able to reproduce a stereo signal? I cant find the answer on the internet. Just looking at the typical back side of a primary powered speaker, it does not seem to input stereo signal sources. And when it is connected to another powered speaker, it would seem to only be sending a copy of its own signal to the second speaker, not a separate half of a stereo signal, which of course is necessary for true stereo reproduction? Thanks.

A two months ago I was in a party and I saw the keyboardist used RCF Art-735 (I looked for it on Internet and noticed that it is active speakers) with Dynacord 1600w PowerMate Mixer (I also noticed on Internet that is built-in with power amplifier) Was this connection False? The sound was not bad

Can you connect passive directly to a mixer

can i connect passive speaker (out-put on a active speaker???

my rule of thumb is: For full range box i use active because less head aches, for subs always use passive because power!

powered speakers can use digital crossover which is better than analog ones used in passive speakers

Active Speaker alwys

Power speakers do not have near the power as a separate powered amp. Even if they are rated the same power. The clarity and specs is much better with a amp as well. Now that being said your very Hi-End equipment might be close. But you pay heavy for it. just saying!

You never show how to plug in

I am wondering about big music festivals such as Ultra Music Festival, Lost Lands, Tomorrowland... what kind of speakers they use for huge spaces like that, Powered or Passive speakers?

I’ve been searching up many videos on which type of speaker I should buy and what suits me, they all were nowhere near as helpful as this video. Best one on RU-vid 🤌🤌