I just have to say that Klispch get WAY to much negative feedback, and most do not have experience with them. I truly believe that if most spent time with non mass market versions of their speakers they could find many positive things to say. The term bright and Klipsch is misleading as many good speakers are revealing(bright) and when its Klispch, they are just called bright and ear bleeding.
I am not a big fan of Klipsch speakers, but I basically agree with you. Their speakers are much better than some would have you believe, particularly their high end models (like the Klipschorns; there is a reason why they have been in production since the 1940's). And their lessor models tend to be comparable in quality with other speakers that are in their price range. One may prefer other speakers, but honestly they are not generally dramatically bad for their price points. (I know of none that are dramatically bad for their price points, and I have heard many and even owned a few, but I have not heard them all and so I cannot say for sure about all of them.)
Very often, someone judges a whole line by one model, heard under less than ideal circumstances. Polk is another maligned brand among some people, but I think they tend to be decent at their price points as well (with usually the bottom model that has real wood veneer being a particularly good value at real world prices, though I have not heard the latest).
Of course, if one is comparing a $100 Polk or Klipsch with one's favorite brand of speaker at the $1000 price point, we can expect that the more expensive one
ought to be much better.
I personally particularly like ribbon/planar speakers, like Apogee and Magnepan, but to each his or her own.
