I went thru this in Feb, my first "real" monitoring setup.
wound up buying a Passive setup.
a Nice "positive" to passive, that has seemed to hold true,
1) you can upgrade speakers at about 50% less or more, than Actives.
Passives it's probably easier to have a few sets to A/B due to cost.
(but from personal exp. this may be more confusing than just getting on with it and learning one pair really well, inside and out.)
**a few negatives on pasives may be...
takes up more space.
not portable.
resale may be less these days,
but hey..passives cost less too..so again wash-out?
some technical heads, are probably correct that a
well-designed, reputable Active set would have better Tech-specs, than say me matching an amplifier to any old set of speakers. but that doesn't mean 100% of Active speakers really accomplish this. that would be way too naieve.
I'm currently liking JBL alot. I picked up some old speakers of theirs,
noticed is their web site and info is very available,
they have a long history, my exp with their stuff has been good thru the years. great gearhead info. on their web.
JBL makes both kinds of Studio Monitors, Passive and Active.
DynAudio makes both, Adam...etc.
Wharfedale and Yorkville both have a Active or Passive line.
i highly doubt i could pass a blindfold test, and tell you which is better.
but its your application and then preference.
DYNBM6 and DYNBM6A...which is better? this is an interesting question IMO.