Which speakers did you find bright, fatiguing or just disappointing in some way?

I love that two B&W haters point out that they sound terrible, at least with solid state, specifically Rotel, but good with Pass amps. Yes, it is true  B&W's will reproduce the horrible stuff in  your electronics that other speakers mask, either with blandness or too much energy directed elsewhere.   They reproduce and amplify what ever they are fed, and a lot of electronics are truly horrible.  That is why so many speakers either sound bland or overly dynamic in certain frequencies, to hide the horrible electronics in most electronics.   I recently had an two extensive listens to current 804's, with current Rotel CD and electronics.  At first, I thought my ears were defective..  That is why I returned.  If your electroinoc make B&W's harsh, too bright, etc, no matter how much you want to love your particular electronics, it is not the speakers.  The simple fact that they sound good with Nelson Pass electronics should have alerted one writer.  he might have sounded great if the source were better.   I really believe that people dislike B&W's because of the price, and that is totally fair.  I have owned one set for 40 years.  These replaced some older ones.  My "New" ones are twenty now.  I also have several sets that were in various rooms of my old houses, before I downsized to one little one.  My Maggies and Acoustats came and went while I had these, although the Acoustats did stay for 25years.  I have never bought new B&W's, but love people who spend a fortune on them, and sell them for a big loss, to people like me. 

German Physiks, omni-directional speakers. Can't remember the model, but they retailed for about $20k at the time. An absolute snore of a sound, everywhere and nowhere. The lower bass was acceptable, but that was it. 

Estelon speakers. Tall, floor standing and very expensive speakers with twin side-firing woofers at the bottom - can't remember the model. Auditioned via Vitus mono amps and a slew of other über-priced gear. Dull, lifeless, flat, and at that price? 

@whitestix , an interesting post. The original LS50 has been one of the great success stories of the past decade. 

It will also be interesting to see which well known brands do not make an eventual appearance here. [Unless I've missed it, Tekton and Ohm Walsh's seem to have escaped so far, as have designs which feature ribbon tweeters?].

Maybe that was the OPs intention to draw up a domestic shortlist? He's making a list, he's checking it twice.

Anyway I think it's fair to assume that most of us were prepared to experiment with placing and ancillaries before condemning any particular speaker and moving on.

Why wouldn't we, considering the usual financial hit that normally comes with that?

I've owned 3 different Tannoy models and all have been good at their price points, the MX3, the R3 and the Berkeley's.

The only one I would have trouble living with today would be the budget floorstanding MX3s with their obvious treble sting (comparitively speaking + they weren't a horror show - very few are).

In hindsight maybe it wasn't that their treble was especially more harsh than the other two. Maybe it was the fact that they were doing quite a lot less elsewhere that drew more attention to what the soft dome tweeter was doing.

Ideally we audiophiles want a speaker that does a lot of things really well as otherwise we're likely to become increasingly frustrated with what we perceive is not being done well. 

This brings the danger of upgrading to something that does this one particular thing better - only for us to later realise it also does quite a few things worse!

I suspect more than a few of us have been on this particular roundabout to find we end up back close to where we began.

Especially if we were fortunate enough to begin our initial audio journey with a mid or high performance design.

OP:   Klipsch LaScala's.   Purchased new back in the 90's.   While it is a great speaker,  it was to fatiguing for my ears.

hmmm, well as I got older and am losing my hearing the Bose 901s are sounding better and better (still need a sub of course).