customer-specified amplifiers. In 1990, Meyer produced its first powered speaker: the HD-1, a 2-way studio monitor with all internal electronics. In the early '90s, after years of dealing with the disadvantages of passive systems, especially varying gain settings on third-party amplifiers, John Meyer decided to stop making passive speakers and devote his company to active designs. Meyer said he "hired an ad agency to research how people felt about powered speakers for sound reinforcement, and they came back after a survey and said that nobody wanted them." Sound reinforcement system operators said they did not want loudspeakers in which they could not see the amplifier meters to determine whether the loudspeakers were working properly during a concert. Nevertheless, Meyer kept to his decision and produced the MSL-4 in 1994, the first powered loudspeaker intended for concert touring. The UPA-1 was converted to a self-powered configuration in 1996 and the rest of Meyer's product line followed suit. Advantages and disadvantages Fidelity The main benefit of active versus passive speakers is in the higher fidelity associated with active crossovers and multiple amplifiers, including less IMD, higher dynamic range and greater output power. The amplifiers within the loudspeaker enclosure may be ideally matched to the individual drivers, eliminating the need for each amplifier channel to operate in the entire audio bandpass. Driver characteristics such as power handling and impedance may be matched to amplifier capabilities. More specifically, active speakers have very short speaker cables inside the enclosure, so very little voltage and control is lost in long speaker cables with higher resistance. An active speaker often incorporates equalization tailored to each driver's response in the enclosure. This yields a flatter, more neutral sound. Limiting circuits (high-ratio audio compression circuits) can be incorporated to increase the likelihood of the driver surviving high-SPL use. Such limiters may be carefully matched to driver characteristics, resulting in a more dependable loudspeaker requiring less service. Distortion detection may be designed into the electronics to help determine the onset of protective limiting, reducing output distortion and eliminating clipping. Cabling Passive speakers need only one speaker cable but active speakers need two cables: an audio signal cable and an AC power cable. For multiple-enclosure high-power concert systems, the AC cabling is often smaller in diameter than the equivalent speaker cable bundles, so less copper is used. Some powered speaker manufacturers are now incorporating UHF or more frequently Wi-Fi wireless receivers