Sad to say, but when I heard Bose in college, I was hooked on hifi.
Let's see. I know I had a pair of AR speakers that were small bookshelf speaker/monitors that had an unusual shape- the outer edges were tapered. I also ran another pair of bookshelf speaker with them, with impressive results, but I can't remember the name, nor the receiver I used, but it was pretty good. (God knows what strain I put on that amp).
Unfortunately, I sold it to a deadbeat who never paid me.
And, a pair of BIC SoundSpan speakers that weren't bad in retrospect.
I believe there is another speaker maker using a similar design now.
And, a pair of Tamanton speakers that were built in Williamsburg, Brooklyn-very close to a pair of Vandy 2's, but a bit less expensive. Unfortunately, Anton got out of the business. Though it was nice to meet a speaker designer and his wife (and child). I hope they are doing well.
Lots of speakers later, I eventually heard of Vandersteen.
They were a ground breaker that I always remembered. Though Magnepan, Shahinian, Quad, and even Ohm piqued my interest.
After 30 years of building my business, I finally got to the point of getting back into stereo.
That Vandy sound stuck with me, and I was happy to find them still in business.
My Treo's are one heck of a speaker.
Bob
