A good post and sincere. In fact it was the responses that I knew would follow that I really enjoy.
First I knew that some member would chime in exposing some subjective view of consumerism and the evils of these types of indulgences. To which I always reply keep your views to yourself. You either have made a personal choice not to spend too much money or you dont have it to begin with. In any case make your own choices and leave others alone
True some speakers are easier to place than others, but the cost of a speaker has nothing to do with the complexity of set up. Better associated equipment is needed simply because the speaker is more transparent and revealing. A better speaker is still better than a more modest speaker with the same equipment. The warts are simply more apparent.
One of the members mentioned something to the effect that Yamaha tuned the speakers to sound more like their instruments. A bit of thought should quickly reveal the absurdity of such an assertion. Essentially what they are doing, at best, is designing the speaker with some coloration that some find pleasant. Kind of like the belief in the effectiveness of thin walled speaker cabinets and energy dissipation. You may not like the sound of a inert cabinet speaker like a Magico, but it is a better way to design a speaker whose goal is accuracy. It can be no other way. Oh and it is elimination of many colorations that make the speaker better but also is the reason many think the speaker is cold and uninvolving.
Unless buying used you should always audition any speaker at any price. When auditioning use music that is familiar and also try to duplicate not only the type of component used (S.S. or tubes) but also insist the upstream components are of similar price.
What you like the best is what you should buy even if you end up with a "tuned" speaker. Buy what you like and pay little attention to the reviewers. I put more credence in the opinion of members on this forum than with the reviewers. I think you will find some of the newer speaker significantly better than your ADS, but with this improvement comes the problem that Ozzy Osborne doesnt sound as similar to Donald Fagen any longer.
If you buy correctly, it will increase your enjoyment of music significantly. It may also mean that you may enjoy poorly recorded music less. This has not been the case for me, but many start to limit their software to better recordings which really after system improvements.
