well here is the thing. looking over the form i miss asked if you will, what i meant. i meant to see about the different ways of making unpowered monitors "functional??" if you will? like are there specific types of power amps made just for powering unpowered monitors? or am i an idiot and don't know what i'm talking about? i'm gunna say i don't know what i'm talking aobut
As Willie correctly points out, powered mixers are indeed one valid way of powering passive monitors. A second way would be buying separate power amplifier(s). The third way would be to simply get powered monitors.
Personally I'd stay away from most powered mixers for studio/recording use. Like John mentioned, they are really designed for live PA use; the amplifier in them meant to drive PA loudspeakers. With this in mind, PA mixers tend to sacrifice some audiophiliac specs - which one really doesn't need in most sound reinforcement situations - in favor of durability and ruggedness for road use and to save money for including the amplifier section.
There's also the question of whether you really need a mixer for your recording situation or not. If you are recording multi-track to your computer and mixing on computer (just for example), the need for a mixer at all is purely optional, and buying a whole mixer just to power your amplifiers is kind of like buying an automobile just to use the air conditioning
.
That leaves the choice between powered monitors or passive monitors with separate amplifiers. The most audiophiliac among us usually choose the passive monitors with separate amplifiers because it allows tem to pick the "best" speakers to go with the "best" amplifiers and allows them to mix and match how they choose. This is usually considered the top-of-the-line solution.
For most home recorders with limited budget, noob knowledge of the subject, and many other limitations in experience and physical home acoustics and so forth, it often doesn't necessarily make the most sense to go with the top-shelf solutions, however. For example, I'd bet the house that you couldn't hear the difference between a powered monitor and the exact same monitor powered by an external amplifier instead, or if you could hear the difference, you wouldn't really know what to make of it or do with it. (Nothing personal meant by that, this is going to be true of most folks.)
In such cases, powered monitors, while perhaps not the Mercedes Benz of solutions, can save money and also save the trouble of having to match amplifier specs to loudspeaker specs. And in most cases (unless you go really cheap) the quality of gear you're getting will be just fine, certainly enough to get the job done for anybody with the ears to do the job. There's no shame in driving a Nissan Altima instead of a Benz. For a typical new driver such as yourself, I think this would probably be the most sensible solution.
G.
