Let me confess to not reading all the posts here. But I have heard numerous B&W speakers, which spread enormously (like Measles?: remember we need to have had the stuff once) in Mexico City, where I write from. In my auditioning experience, for example, Dynaudio beat the B&W hands down -- the latter sounding very ordinary(mid-fi/lo-brow?) at diffrent price ranges. This might also be because the B&W stuff tends to be sold here through chi-chi superstores, which have minimal discrimination (though now AND AGAIN excellent sales-folk). It was the the last who led me to what I do own by way of speakers and amps, Margules Audio, indigenous to Mexico -- super stufff I find, but at least I am not bashing any mark/marca.