Good article for beginners.
I had a set of Aperion's (632LR) that went back. They were decent speakers, nicely finished, and I would've been happy with them. But for $600/pr I really felt I could do better. And I did.
All the attacks against buying speakers retail is partially true, but when was the last time anyone paid MSRP for a set of Polks, Klipsch, Infinity, or other comparable speaker? The Aperion prix fixe, no haggle approach may appeal to some, but not me.
As for "white van speakers," they actually got me into audio equipment 8 years ago! I was cornered in a Baltimore parking lot by some scary figures with "$1200" Denmark loudspeakers. "Watch me punch the cone!" and such. They weren't going to let me leave, and since they finally said "$50" I said what the hell, curiousity got the best of me.
I had a Sansui hand-me-down receiver from Dad with a set of Advents to match. When I plugged in the Denmarks I was immediately "WTF?" Even worse then I'd expected. Must've been very low sensitivity, badly finished, and I don't even think the woofers were connected. I Yahoo'd (pre-Google domination
) "speakers from parking lot" and had a good laugh.
For $50 they were worth a laugh. I replaced them with some real Danish speakers via Jamo and never looked back... until upgraditis took over.