I heard the FS52s over the weekend. Perhaps I had a bad setup, but I did not hear what people are raving about. They sounded like cheap tower speakers to me. Obviously everyone has different tastes but I thought they were nothing special.
With due respect, part of what makes the pioneers special is how little they add to the recording. It's easy to make a speaker that seems special at first listen, but is otherwise a very poor speaker.
Best Buy. To me, they were quiet, subdued, and had no bass
As far as quiet, then why not just turn the volume up?
As far as bass goes, the biggest issue is the recording. If the recording does not have powerful bass relative to the rest of the track, a good speaker won't exaggerate the bass, whereas a bad speaker will exaggerate the bass not only in the compressed recording but everything else. It's a common trick to exaggerate bass response because people expect even crappy recordings to have great bass - when it just isn't there.
Subdued is a common first reaction to a tweeter that is well balanced. People often confuse a tweeter that is exaggerated with a tweeter that is resolving and detailed - when they are NOT the same thing!
Going back to your other thread I can see that you're probably not an experienced auditioner. You really do have to live with a neutral speaker for a while before you can make any judgements on them. Short auditions with an inexperienced ear and poorly selected source material will always favor the hot treble, exaggerated bass "smiley face curve". That's how a lot of people end up with otherwise muddy sounding boom n sizzle speakers.
There is definitely an adjustment period when it comes to GOOD neutral speakers. Without any experience / adjustment period you will be drawn toward the speakers that impress once, but may not have the same effect in the long term.
Stores do this fairly often. They will take an inexpensive, good performing product and set it up so it doesn't perform well. That way they can up-sell you to a more expensive item!
You're giving stores too much credit for competence. last time I was at a best buy, that had the energy speakers wired directly out of phase. How they couldn't hear it was beyond me.
