Given the impetus to simplify, I think it was a smart move for Dennis to back out of the AA market. I have compared his AA's (the original Dayton Audio one) to many speakers and could not find anything that could keep up with it for the price!
However,
if you did not need the amazing bass of the AA's, there are other options that,
when on sale, give it a run for the money:
Sony Core do not sound quite as open on the high end, but they come pretty close. They have been discounted as low as $99/pr. and more commonly around $140/pr. So, it gets to a question of whether the added performance of the AA's is worth how much!
Infinity Reference R162 is a speaker that were sold at deep discount and looked to be on closeout over a year ago, however they keep popping back up at the discounted prices ($190 or $200/pr) from time to time. I have heard, but not directly compared these two speakers, but I think the R162 may actually beat the AA's (to my ear, of course). Harman/Infinity knows how to design quality speakers and at $450/pr (the normal price and what they are going for right now),and with the high volume to get custom drivers at quantity discounts the quality of the drivers Infinity uses is likely better. The bass from the Infinity did not seem as good as the AA, but otherwise the Infinity impresses me as better.
@zieglj01 has heard the
Boston Acoustic A25/A26 series. I don't know if he has heard the AA's (I think he is at least familiar with the previous Pioneer AA's) Perhaps he can comment on how these compare to the Pioneer AA's? I would guess they are pretty similar to the AA's. Currently, the A25 are $150/pr and the A26 are $200/pr from Accessories4less. Note that these prices are 50% off of the MSRP! Since Amazon says they are no longer available, they may be discontinued?!
The way I look at it is the cost advantage of making thousands of speakers fully assembled abroad (like Sony, Infinity, and Boston) is generally off-set by all of the other costs these large companies have (Development/tooling for large scale production, marketing, standard profit margins, distribution, etc.). I believe for the three speakers above, the manufacturers have sold enough units to reclaim their development/tooling costs and when they have these deep discounts they are bypassing the distributors (Infinity sells direct) or (less ideal) selling through limited venues (such as A4L selling the Bostons) to reduce that cost. However, I am certain they are not losing money when they are "clearencing" these speakers I would guess they are near cost which is where Dennis' speakers were to start with!
The overall notion I am presenting is that in the price range of the AA, there is often a speaker
being heavily discounted that ends up competitive with it. At the price of the BMR and Phil3, speakers (from the likes of Boston, Sony, and Infinity) are not so casually mass-produced (in
very large quantities) and the deep discounts are few and far between, leaving the BMR and Phil3 as unique (and essentially unchallenged) high quality values!
To be clear, if these companies negatively impacted Dennis' AA sales, I don't think he noticed, he has been very busy for a good while now! However, for those of us who are willing to wait for the right deal and keep our eyes on the "Deals, Deals, Deals" forum, we do have other options! But you'd have to pay to find the SQ of the BMR and Phil3 elsewhere!
PS - Understand this is simply a "discussion post". I have no specific "in" to know what actually is happening in these companies' operations. I did spend most of my career in manufacturing and I think I've stayed at Holiday Inn Express a time or two!
