My goal was to get my space to sound as close to a studio's mixing stage or private screening room as possible. When I looked at selecting speakers I always had to consider three additional items for my budget, the amps needed to power them, the rack that needs to hold the amp (s) and the wires needed to connect them. I don't think selecting speakers can be considered without matching them to the best type of amp. For most people in HT that would be a receiver. I started looking at what was available and
found a review that struck a chord with me for Paradigm's Active Reference speakers and they also had the same line in a passive version. The measurements and specs for the active speakers blew away the passive version in every parameter.
When you buy a good amp you need to spend and if you BIAMP your speakers you spend double. My active speakers were biamped internally which saved me $$$$ as well as the real estate needed for additional amps. The amps in the speakers are chosen to match the individual drivers by the speakers designers. That takes the guess work out of matching an amp.
Active speakers use active crossovers which I prefer over passive crossovers in my system, YMMV. When I built my first system it was 5.1 and I considered all of the active speaker benefits ancillary. Now it has grown to 9.2.7 and I consider the benefits monumental just on the savings of additional amps and speaker wire alone. Not to mention the real estate saved on racks of amps and if I had to biamp all those speakers it would be impossible. There are good active speaker manufacturers who are members here and Gene has reviews on several. If you are considering active speakers for your HT you may not need the type that have DAC's inside. just the amps.