Hi Guys sorry just checking threads from last few days. Been tied up.
Here’s an unedited messy and very 'general impressions' of a reply! I purchased the Vienna Acoustics Beethoven’s and the VA Maestro center speaker.

Yes speakers are probably the most personality-oriented purchase we make. I’m going to have to go back and swing through the selections I heard to firm up what I remember (and models are fading) but:
The Sonus Faber GP were the closet to the VA’s. The salesman really pushed these to me hard, - although I think they were a little less (on sale or something) than the Beethoven’s so I tended to believe he truly preferred them. He stated he was saving up for them and that the GP’s were his personal favorites. I could not put my finger on the difference between the two choices. The Beethoven’s did lack (a tiny amount) in the bass as compared to the GP’s. But they had an overall presence that I felt solidly beat the GP’s across the board. The Martin Logans (3 or 4 models we listened to) intrigued my husband the most. He really wanted to (I could tell, - I know him so well) and tried to prefer these going back to them repeatedly But he finally stated that it was the ‘look’ of them most attracted him. They were rock solid on some frequency ranges in reproducing the music with least distortion or effects. He really felt the ML were a conversation piece using the planar technology. But without my prompting he used the exact word I was thinking to compare their sound to the Beethoven's when specifically listening to some solo grand piano pieces by George Winston and a few other CD’s in that acoustic type range. He turned and said the sound is ‘flat’ listening to the ML as compared to the Beethoven’s and even the Sonus Fabors.
I’ll be honest I bought these on a time crunched rampage and had only listened to whatever (all models) are available at Tweeters, Ultimate Electronics and a few months earlier had already demoed at a local high end boutique to whatever they had in on the floor under 6K.
There were a set of Polks at UE (I don’t think the most expensive model for Polk on the floor but I’m not sure, I’ll check the number next time I’m there) I’d have to see them to recall which model specifically but I believe they were new in 2002. I felt those were a very good buy for the price. (If I remember the pair I’m thinking about were anywhere from 800 to 1500?) If I had been limited to a tighter budget I would have gone back and given that Polk a second listen as compared to the VA’s Mozart’s etc which were also in their ballpark price range. There are several speakers I would love to have the opportunity to hear at some future time that the B&M’s just don’t tend to carry. But there is only so much time in a week. As life permits hope to hear many more.

Well, the best judge is your ears. No point being band-wagon about outlaw just because this is their forum. They choose to be different by listening to user feedback etc. So it only makes sense to do a fair review and we may get an even better product soon

If you bought the Pioneer DV 47ai like I did...it makes a lot of sense to buy the 49Txi and connect them with the iLink.
Pioneer has done a lot lately to improve their products and image. I must give them that. You will be seriously surprised at how clean the 49txi sounds
I am a computer engineer and don't want to get fooled by some of the BS the dsp people give us. Moreover accuracy in that domain by 0.1% will not affect SQ