May seem like a silly question but I want to make sure. Just got a pair of Hosa 8" passive monitors on Ebay . They’re discontinued and were a gamble but a great price $75 plus shipping = $138.They arrived as advertised - new in factory sealed box. However I notice on the front they’re labeled bi-amped active monitors. I think they must be mis labeled as there is no power cord and they play off my 100 Alesis amp just fine…
Must be mis-labeled - right? Otherwise ,they amps would need power
Yes, amplifying without power would be difficult. Is there even a power inlet on them?
What it probably means in this particular case is that the monitors have the ability for each driver to be wired directly to an amp (and so the system would be called bi-amped active).
Normally a passive two way speaker has an internal crossover, and is powered by one amp - the crossover then divides up the signal between woofer and tweeter.
Speakers that can be bi-amped have the option for the internal crossover to be bypassed, with each driver driven directly by separate amps.