The thing that's really cool is how little they weigh. A 15" w/ horn and amp built-in can be easily picked up by one person. A nice side effect is that the amp and speaker are perfectly matched, so the likelihood of blowing something out is very very low.

I'd have gone powered for the speakers I have now (2 JRX100s by JBL) but I didn't have the dough. If I was wealthy, I'd probably go self-powered for the lot; monitors, tops, subs, etc, but that would run me something like:

Lessee... the powered monitors are a grand each, the tops run about 1500 each and the subs are about the same, so... about ten grand in total to have an entire system with powered enclosures.

Unpowered, the monitors are about 400 each, the tops and subs are about five hundred each, amp for the monitors about 800, amp for the tops about the same, amp for the sub about the same (those things take a LOT of power at those low frequencies) so about six grand to get the whole thing. OTOH, about three more boxes to carry, and the amp prices are for old style amps, so they'll be heavy. The new class D amps are still in the 1500-2500 per range, depending on power output.

Size matters, but... so does weight. Old style will add close to a quarter ton to the total weight, so it starts to matter wrt a trailer and towing capacity.

Still, right now money is the limiting factor, so I'm going old style. Hopefully I'll be in a position to go new style when it comes time to take it up to the next level of PA for bigger/better rooms.