I am nuts to use these speakers?

I agree with Tubegroover et al. I recently stopped thinking about equipment and went on a media/listening binge, and found it much more satisfying. I also agree that if you simply MUST hear what you are missing (or not missing) try to audition a pair or two. I've heard ProAc and Audio Physic are good matches with ARC, and also good in nearfield. There is a recent "what's good in nearfield" thread here as well. Happy listening!

Thanks to all the great suggestions! audiophiles are a decent bunch...as for dealers I only buy stuff from them when it is too heavy or difficult to buy off of the web. Our local dealers here in Vancouver, Canada suck. Lots of attitude...they are waiting for lottery winners to come in and buy $50,000 systems at full list. They also think that vinyl is a waste of time and would rather sell you the latest, greatest incarnation of digital or a surround sound system. I think that I am going to go slow on the speakers because I am really happy, but I hate to miss out...

I forgot to add that most of my gear came from audiogon classifieds and that the fellow at Hollywood Hifi in Florida whose name escapes me was first class in assisting me with my VPI questions even though I did buy it used from audiogon. He did however sell me a Grado Ref cartridge, stand and other accessories so I am not anti dealer, just anti lousy dealers.

Interesting thread....
I was pretty happy with some nice two-way monitors developed by two friends of mine in the early 90s (one now head designer at Boston Acoustics, the other runs Acentec, the acoustical engineering offshoot of the original BB&N); I helped with final crossover voicing; many were surprised at the speaker's dynamics and great bass. Over the years upper midrange/low treble roughness (tweeter resonance issues, I think) eventually resulted in me simply listening to music less and less.
After building my first 3 way, and thus realizing the difficulty in acquiring smooth, coherent bass/mid transitions, I decided to not screw around anymore, and perhaps embark on a search of established builders' fine-tuned successful results. Speaker design is HARD!
I waded through various Aeriels, Thiels, Nautilus (don't work in nearfield at all!), Paradigm, and Sonus Faber. I especially started to appreciate better quality midrange response.
I too discovered the Revel F30, and realized I now HAD to have midrange purity, and hopefully still get coherent full-range response in a 3-way for large-scale orchestral work in the nearfield. Unfortunately my wife couldn't handle the Revel's Califirnia moderne (cartoony?) looks.
I then discovered Verity Audio speakers, and fell in love!
Unfortunately the affordable Fidelios' rear-firing woofers didn't work in the nearfield, but I eventually found a demo pair of front-firing Parsifal Encores at a great price.
I listen to music at least 5 times as much this year as last, and have purchased probably an additional 50 CDs as well.
Owning these speakers has changed my relationship with recorded music. Transducer smoothness, proper room-loading,
coherence, and complete clone-like L-R freq resp matching have meant all the difference.
I certainly agree that if you enjoy the musicality of your system then you may not wish to spend the necessary time performing repeated home auditions. It's real work! Yet you may find yourself either stumbling upon, or evolving toward,
a level of musical satisfaction that in many ways equals (or in soundstaging transcends!) many live music venues!
Just one man's grateful story. Good luck with whichever path you choose! Ern

Ntscdan, you have the basis for an outstanding audio playback system. If you did not, I would not have been so quick to recommend you change your speakers. If you think your system sounds great w/ the JBL 4311 (which are not a bad speaker, but they are a 25 year old design), then you will be thoroughly amazed by what can be acheived with an up to date speaker design. There has been significant progress in speaker materials since the 4311 first left the JBL factory. Witness the carbon fiber construction of the JBL LSR series with their molded tweeter wave guide. My suggestion is to hook up with a good dealer who will let you do at home auditions. Try a number of different brands and models and compare them to your 4311s. Some may not sound better, but I would truly be surprised if you quickly didn't hit upon some model that makes the 4311 sound relatively unlistenable. The 4311 are holding your system back.