Current speaker threads are boring

Just because you didn’t like something that somebody gave a review on and liked it doesn’t mean the equipment is bad. What you are expecting a system to sound like is going to be different from other people and every system is different starting with equipment to room acoustics.

Couldn’t agree more. This hobby is a tough one to crack-most of us rely on reviews and buy blindly. Speakers are more "polluted" by overt marketing than any other component. Speaker manufacturers, in order to survive, resort to exotic materials or configurations that will grab consumers who shop with their eyeballs. At the end of the day there are three practical and not-so-practical solutions; establish a relationship with a reputable dealer, travel as necessary to demo the gear in a similarly sized room with similar ancillary gear, or be prepared to buy and sell many speakers (or other component) until you find the bowl of porridge that is just right. On that last method-over at "amps/preamps" there is a thread started by "Whitecamaross" in which he went through 50 or so power amps (!) at an expense of over $500,000 according to his report!
I think the current speaker threads are boring too-primarily because too many people chase after the speakers that get talked about the most, substituting group-think for their own personal taste. I also imagine that this forum, unlike the "whatsbest" forum, is a better reflection of the economy and consumer confidence. When 95% of the posts are about speakers under $2,000, I think consumer confidence is not very high. And lastly, A-gon does have it’s own demographic of regular posters and it’s just a mystery how these things vary from board to board.

Mikey nailed it best-if I am not mistaken in his review of the ARC Ref 6-that at the end of the day a good sound reproduction system either draws you in or pushes you away. I am of the belief that far too many electronics and speakers on the market today ultimately push you away. Not immediately-I say "ultimately" for a reason-it happens slowly over time. There is a very easy test-after six months of stasis-no change-are you listening or are you doing other things with your time spent sitting around? I said it earlier in this thread, but with speakers-like no other component-there must be a match with the room. So, you have to audition and if at all possible, audition in your own listening room. So to the point-is the speaker forum boring? Yep, it is. Why? Because most posts are about whatever speaker is hot on the forums or hot in recent reviews and are relatively affordable. The KEF LS50, the Tektons, and Harbeths seem to account for over 75% of the posts right now. Interestingly, each is quite different. The KEF is arguably a technological advance (even though KEF introduced it more than 10 years ago), the Tekton to my biased mind is just a new iteration of the much-raked-over Legacy line, and Harbeth represents the best of traditional British bespoke speaker design. There was a time when B&W was the hot speaker, and Acoustic Zen, and Legacy and before that Martin-Logan and SoundLab and if you go back far enough, Advent, KLH, and the Bose 901. And fast forward to today and to my mind there are too main camps of exotica at opposite extremes. One is what I call "space ship" with machined metal run berserk-drivers, enclosure, and chambers milled from solid billets of aluminum, titanium, berylium, and that elusive magical element, unobtanium, and the other well represented by the Burwell and Sons Mother of Burl semi-reviewed in the latest edition of Stereophile. Obviously, Magico and YG Acoustics seem to dominate the "space ship" camp at the moment. There's a guy who is very knowledgeable about turntable alignment and a regular on Audio Asylum who recently posted that he will not consider a loudspeaker for purchase unless it utilizes high-tech drivers and a curved enclosure. If I am not mistaken, despite his advanced engineering knowledge his idea of a great turntable is a vintage KAB modded Technics SL1200, not that there is anything wrong with that. The same guy insists on using el-cheapo cables as anything else is a waste of money. My point is that I think the folks that have insightful things to say about loudspeaker choice don't tend to post over and over again on audio boards. I guess it up to us to bring up little known or less-talked about speakers that are interesting. The fact that any such speaker is probably satisfying for reasons that are unique to room and taste makes such posts relatively uncommon.