What are some of the most underrated and overrated loudspeakers you’ve auditioned?

@audiotroy 

And just because a speaker is 20-30k... doesn't mean its good.

I'll take the top end Salk's (9.5, SS10, SS12) all day long over the Wilson Yvette, any Paradigm Persona and a few others all day long.

To me, the Wilson Yvette is merely "ok" and way overpriced.  Now the Sasha 2, with the soft dome tweeter, used at 20k... that's a damn fine speaker.  At 36k... ah that's overpriced.

We get you think Salks are "merely" ok... but it's really really hard to find a thread on any page, or a review by anyone that doesn't think the world of what they get for the money, which to me accounts for an "underrated" classification by many.

At 20k plus... I would EXPECT a speaker to be phenomenal (though many are not).  Heck, the Persona's to many fall in that category.

Now in the stuff you endlessly push out here, I think the Legacy Focus SE is a heck of a speaker, and for what they can be found for used can be a great bargain.

I think the ATC stuff sounds damn good, but it's just so freaking expensive for what you get.  The 50's (both active and passive, but particularly Active) are pretty amazing. 

Fun topic, but meaningless.  Sure, I have my entries in both categories (overrated KEF ls/50, underrated Vandersteen 3A  Signature), but like all else in audio (and the world) it's a matter of personal taste.  Vandersteen is never going to sound great to millercarbon, while they do sound great to me.  Both valid views.  Maybe the real takeaway from this discussion is the highly variable reliability of professional reviews.
Jim Heckman  

Another example:  Wilsons don't make music for me, but apparently very many people love them.  I'm not about to dispute their taste, and in fact am glad they enjoy them.
Jim Heckman

As I am reading this I am enjoying my overrated B&W 802d playing an excellent Led Zep II on my vinyl rig.   I have no plans to ever change them.  Why?   I love the sound, already have them and they are too damn heavy to change out easily.    Of course I am curious to hear other speakers  with my setup but I love the music and enjoy them every time I listen.     Jumping around seeking “better” isn’t always so satisfying.

Don't know if they're underrated as such, but certainly below radar in the audiophile community at large: the JBL 4306 and 4429 (the L100 could also be included here). They image well, are well-balanced, very dynamic, and just sport a clean, honest and low-colored sound. 

What sets them apart from many of the more popular and typical hifi-speakers is the use of compression drivers in the mids and tweeter range, and to me - even though it makes them hybrid designs - this is a good thing. Horn profiles have come a long way these last 10-15 years, especially smaller horn variations (horn "honk" or other overt coloration in modern or larger, old horns is just gibberish and a flat out anachronism), the compression drivers have been great for even longer (though we've seen some improvements here as well), and all of this gets one substantially closer to having your cake and eat it too; there's refinement and imaging here to be had, in addition to significant gain in dynamic headroom, ease, sense of physicality/visceral feel, lower distortion and coloration (yes, you heard me right: lower coloration compared to dome tweeters and coned direct radiator mids). The more I get used to listening to quality horns the more coned direct radiators sound like cones. Piano, violin and saxophone in particular I find to be revealing instruments here, and when you go all-horn wait and see how bigger string instruments like cello and double bass can sound like. 

Most overrated speakers? Not that they seem excessively popular, but I've never bought into the sound of German Physiks speakers.