Gene,
I find that a personally insulting and rather "bold" statement to make, especially considering you have zero experience with our HTM-200 SE.
Regarding cabinet materials:
Our HTM-200 has used 5/8" MDF since its introduction 9 years ago.
Regarding drivers:
The woofers we use are also a composite cone material (custom to Ascend), CAST aluminum frame and are in a league of their own for a 4" woofer. Yes, the Emotiva woofers are larger. Our HTM-200 is slightly less than half the size of the ERM-1, as this was the plan for this speaker.
Regarding our tweeters:
The world-class engineers at SEAS of Norway (some of the finest and most respected in the world) would be extremely insulted if they read your post, they worked on our tweeter for well over a year (also custom to Ascend)... And, if I may be so bold to say, few tweeters -if any- in this tweeter class (compact soft-dome neo) hold a candle to what we use in our HTM-200 SE.
Nothing against the fine folks at Emo, I recommend their electronics nearly every day, but your statement is based on either hearsay or your own opinion and lacks any factual data to warrant such a bold statement.
Here is a picture of the HTM-200 SE woofer:
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showpost.php?p=25714&postcount=61
Here is a picture and info about our SE tweeter, being used in our HTM-200 SE
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showpost.php?p=14293&postcount=1
And finally, here is a pic of the speakers themselves:
http://swbg1.tripod.com/200se_front.jpg