Have you changed your mind about a brand? Was it you, or them?

I went from all Meridian (top of range 8000 speakers, 861 processor, 800 dvd) to Bryston/B&W. The Meridian set up was (and is)  unacceptably cumbersome and prone to things going wrong.

I had a one to one relationship with the directors before they sold out to a lifestyle Dunhill crew (the previous owners even  came to my home to install the set up) but after sale of the business Meridian showed no interest in customer support.

I have had the B&W d2 and now have 800d3 . If you are agreeing with someone who said the measurements are similar, then that has no meaning of any significance.

The d3 is a totally different speaker to the d2 (much better with the "top" issue now sorted) and sounds far better. I have compared them to £150k Wilsons, and independently, I and my friendly dealer, both agree we prefer the d3s. They punch way way beyond their price range.
If you can't tell the difference between a d2 and d3, which your quoted article states then that is a shame, for you, as the difference is significant.

Personally I'm over Integra, Onkyo and Denon. All 3 mid to high end receivers I've owned from these brands have failed in one way or another, and all 3 in a short time frame, but right after warranties expired. I'm having good luck with the Lexicon MC-10 and my Bryston 8B-ST's are rock solid. My old Klipsch Epic CF-4's have sounded great for 20 years but the Klipsch Reference Premier 280's and some other copper gear (I forget the models) to me were inferior so I sold them pretty quick. Now that I understand only their Heritage and Cinema/Pro gear is still made in Hope, AR and the rest is made overseas,  makes sense why the new copper gear has been so underwhelming to me...obviously this is just my personal opinion  but has been my experience. 

I had an Onkyo HT processor for a week, same for Emotiva. Same super thin sound.  Don't ask me why, but talk about a serious let down.

New Colts is not like 20-30 years ago... big disappointment in assembling quality and materials. Levies jeans got pure too.. audio equipment seems to be fine. 

DW drums and DW hardware. Waaay worth it. Gibson Les Paul. Way to spotty QA for a lot of money. Rega turntables. After loads of research, and a fair bit of shopping to buy a Planar 3 (a lot of money for me) very disappointed by poorly designed deck with ground hum.