Wherever possible I buy "seperates". Everything! Seperate! Depending on what I'm buying, that can be pricey or at least more to figure out(More wires...). I think that one amp for every driver pair is best. Infinitely adjustable, repairable, replaceable, etc. So, my next speakers will likely be a nice, yet cheap, set of actives(I don't really care that much.).

Truth, I swear! The actual "Sweatin' the tiny details/specs" speaker amp combo comes very close to being completely irrelevent. Not only will any good monitors work well in a good room, but, TRUTH TO TELL, most actual speaker difficiencies can be corrected by careful tuning of the room, along with rather simple "one time" speaker/amp EQ!!! Most room deficiences however CANNOT be solved by just EQ, filtering, etc., of ANY speakers/amp. Indeed, no matter how capable/expensive the speakers, the room itself ALWAYS needs to be matched to them. So if sweat need be sweated, sweat it on the room itself.

Again, I'm only going so far with my room(Not very far), so it would be silly to go far with my speakers. I'll keep them small and close to me, hoping to minimize room effects(Good luck to me!). Wall-mounted speakers on the other hand really, no question, "use" the room as an integral part of the monitoring system!

Get the speakers you want(The prettiest ones!) and mount them however you want, as long as your room is designed around them. May as well soffit mount them, as once they're "placed", in your proper room, no one will ever have to move them, or tweek anything on the back of them, to get a "better" sound - and they won't get bumped off the console!

No kidding - the room size/design/quality itself will pretty well "short-list" which size/specs nice speakers, within your budget, will do the job(Most similarly priced/sized speakers sound, well... similar.) and only your time/research spent will tell you if you want to go with passive speakers(Which may be best, but..? Today, you may be talking genuine mili-fractions here.).

A Google search for "soffit mounted speakers" brought-up lots of hits, including a nice, techy one(With graphs and everything!) from a big manufacturer - who should know speaker mounting - and speakers! From a quick read, it would seem that room size alone is an initial determinate as to whether to soffit mount or not? But, then again, that company sells ALOT of "console mounted" speakers? Maybe they're not "pushing" soffit mounting, today? Pays to get lots of opinions, hoping to glean a few facts... Good luck!

TG

WELL SAID, Teddy G.

Glad to see a voice of reason and sanity when it comes to speakers. ("Get the prettiest ones" made me chuckle, too!)

Sometimes it comes down to that more than people will admit.... 8-)

some speakers aren't suitable for soffit mounting

having said that, I do love the soffit mounted style

An excellent set of active monitors may in fact have the amps mounted seperate to the box containing the drivers

the point I am making here is that when the budget is high and there is a no compromise attitude, then an active set of monitors should outperform seperates

however this simply does not happen at the dollar level most of us are likely to be purchasing at