I gre out of Be Tweeters

Recognizing that everything is a matter of taste, I've heard things that I thought were good and bad with ALL examples of basic speaker technology and driver materials, so I wouldn't avoid anything in particular.  There are certain particular technology/materials that I tend not to like, but, even then, there are exceptions.  I am actually amazed with how wide a variety of approaches to design are available and have their fans.  If any particular design were outright superior, the market would have converged on that approach, but, that has not been the case. 

Even more amazing to me is how viable REALLY OLD gear is in direct comparison with anything currently available.  I have yet to hear a midrange driver that I would take over a 1939 Western Electric 713b compression driver and a decent horn.  

As for all of the rest of audio gear, I cannot think of any one particular design that I would categorically reject.  There are designs and types that I tend to prefer (low-powered tube gear), but, that does not mean anything else is crap to me.  I really like the sound of tape recordings, but, I would never own a tape machine because I am way too lazy to thread tape; aside from this, I could adopt anything.

I had a lovely Class G Hitachi sr-804 receiver for many years but as time went on it got a bit long in the tooth for whatever reason.

I was enamored with Heil Air motion transformers back when I first started but gave up on them when they kept getting fried.

I also punted with tubes in my DAC.

Class D has pretty much supplanted Class A/B in my house over the last few years.

I have a pair of Focal 1008 BE monitors that I've paired with my ARC VSI55 and my Peachtree Nova 300 integrateds, and I've been very happy with both combinations.  I started out with (and still have many) Klipsch speakers, so to me the BE tweeters are pretty easy to listen to, especially with the Peachtree, which is just slightly rolled off on top compared to my other gear.  I might get tired of them eventually, that seems to happen with much of my gear.

If things keep heading in the current directions, I could consider dumping amplifiers altogether at some point in favor of active speakers with all the goodies built in, but only if the cost of replacement when something goes wrong is not too high.

My first tally in that area is the pair of very impressive for the size and cost Vanatoo Transparent One Encore speakers I recently put in my wife’s very acoustically challenged sun-room. They sound really good in there (as they have when I have heard them at shows past) and easy as pie to set up.

I’ll probably continue with passive speakers for the foreseeable future unless maybe Ohm Acoustics comes up with an affordable pair of powered Walshes with all the goodies baked in like the Vanatoos.