Just flexibility down the road , or if something breaks . Like , if an amp fails in a budget powered speaker , its probably not worth having it repaired , unless you can do it yourself . Also , if you buy passive speakers and don ' t like the amp or want a receiver with more features , you can upgrade that and keep the speakers . Or , buy nicer speakers down the line if the new ones can be adequately driven by the SMSL . I have no experience with the Miccas , but nicer powered speakers often have an active crossover , where the internal amp is designed for the speaker specifically , and can sound better than an equivalent passive speaker and whatever cheap amp could be bought for any amount of $ that ' s close to the difference between the price of the powered and passive speakers . I have no idea whether there is any performance difference between the powered meccas and passives pushed by the SA 60 .