Speakers: all-time worst

Well Pops I respect your opinion and taste as well and I am sure whatever you have in your listening room that can't be displaced by the Vandy 3A Sigs especially must be quite special indeed. There is no way we are talking about the same speakers I heard with old Bob Carver gear. All that auditioning with the Polk speakers became a moot point when I heard the Vandy 2C's which I ultimately purchased after owning the Fanfares for a short spell.

I had a pair of Bose 501's back in the early 70's before I knew better. They were the greatest thing since sliced bread in my opinion, I know better now. The accoustimass speakers are okay, just way overpriced for what they offer, excellent marketing Dr. Amar, other high end manufacturers could learn (some have including Vandersteen, NHT, Magnepan Paradigm and others I'm sure I've left out)I think Wilson is an overall poor value read OVERPRICED in my opinion). I think Cerwin Vega might take the ultimate prize from what I've heard of their boomy boxes. They absolutely suck the worst yet they continue to sell.......go figure.

Great Story Cardinal that is funny

Pops I remember well the Polk SRS/SDA from the 80's and could not disagree with you more! Their bad rap is well earned. The bass on that speaker was horrendous and really overpowered the rest of the frequency range. Tonal balance was all wrong. Regardless of the SDA circuit being removed, I can't imagine too much of an improvement on the big speaker, the one that looked like a 6' coffin. Now that you remind me of it I would probably include that speaker among the worst especially for the 3k they were charging for it at the time. I did however like the smaller one in the SRS line that mounted on a bookshelf speaker, can't remember the model #. At the time around 1986, I did an audition with a pair of Fanfare speakers a 3-way design. The speaker was direct order from the manufacturer and offered a 30 day money back warranty. I was considering the stand mounted Polk at the time and wanted to do a comparison side by side. At 339.00 a pair the Fanfares (I can't remember the model name) handily beat the whole Polk line including their monitors and the SDA series. Even the salesman had to admit to it. I still have a pair of the Fanfare Preludes a 2-way which I used to use as surround speakers, they still sound quite good for their modest size. While we are on the subject does anyone remember the funny looking speakers that had wings on the bass, midrange and tweeter modules from a company called Tennessee Sound Company? They were the only speakers I can recall that Stereophile (Dick Olsher, I believe) throughly trashed. The company shortly thereafter went belly up.