I would like to "take back" my thread. I wish you folks could turn the emotion down a notch.
My favorite all-time speakers (that I owned) were M-L CLS, I spent many years with them and a variety of subwoofing options. When I wanted to change to something more practical, I went to Wilson W/P 3/2's, which definitely did not suck, but were among the best small ultra high end speakers available at the time. Remember, at the time to buy something more expensive than W/P 3/2's, you had to go up to the really "big" speakers like the top of the line Wilsons or IRS V's. The IRS V's that I heard at Lyric were the best speaker that I have ever heard, but a little impractical for us folks. When I got into SACD and made the transition to multichannel, around the time that the Pio 47a came out (you remember, the first "universal player"), I bought 5 identical B&W Nautilus 805's. That was somewhat random in choice, it all started when I saw a single 805N for sale on Ebay. Obviously, I then upgraded to 803N's to get a full range sound.
I currently have a Theta Dreadnaught II, which is a wonderful 5 channel amp, and an Anthem D2V prepro. I still have my Esoteric DV-50, but more I am using my Oppo 83 to take advantage of the Anthem ARC room correction software. I don't feel the need for a subwoofer with the 803N's, but I would like to get back to the more precise imaging and "true" upper-echelon sound that my Wilson's had. Around the time that I sold my Wilsons, a good audiophile buddy bought a pair of 802N's (he got a spectacular deal) and even my wife agreed they sounded more natural than my Watt/Puppies.
Unfortunately, Stereophile hasn't had a show in NYC in several years, I didn't enjoy the environment of a stereo show, but it was a good way to quickly get a taste of a large number of different components. From those shows, I always wanted to try and create a surround system from MBL speakers, but they are really expensive and I think my wife would kill me if she saw them in our house:)
3 802D's for the front 3 speakers is lot of cash, which is why I started this thread. The idea of going to a new company for the system is not out of the question, but then I would probably be looking at eventually purchasing 5 new speakers.
There's my story. Don't beat me up too much...