Passives severly degrade phase response
Getting low distortion is very easy in both passive and active systems but you cannot get a linear phase response from passive at any cost, no matter how costly or better components you use, the back EMF from speaker's voice coil will interact with passive XO and corrupt the phase response and you will get something in listening which was never there.
A poor phase response means you lack detailing and sound staging.
I don't believe is lowering distortion further from the levels that cannot be detected by human ears (I feel that those who perceive reduced distortion just due to active system are suffering from Placebo effect). If one is using good components, the distortion will be very low even for passive system
Getting low distortion is very easy in both passive and active systems but you cannot get a linear phase response from passive at any cost, no matter how costly or better components you use, the back EMF from speaker's voice coil will interact with passive XO and corrupt the phase response and you will get something in listening which was never there.

A poor phase response means you lack detailing and sound staging.
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