Norman,
To a certain extent I agree with you. Without doubt, its simple to spend a fortune on really great drivers and crossovers, and have it sound horrible. Designing your own speakers takes a lot of work, knowledge, and in most cases some good measurement equipment. HOWEVER, there are a ton of proven designs available. There are lots of "kits" available that would give you 90% of the Linn/Thiele/etc. experience for half the cost. Suppose you want that last 5-10%...there are designs out there for those as well. Stuff from Northcreek is supposed to be exceptional, and I would guess compares very, VERY closely with the top dogs out there.

Here's another thing to consider (and I may be tying the rope to hang myself), I don't think that speakers are quite as critical for HT use as they are for music. That's probably an over-generalization, but here are some of my thoughts. First, in music listening, and particularly in straight stereo, phasing is EXCRUCIATINGLY important for a good image and soundstaging. You need good speakers to bring out all of the details, instrument harmonics, and subtlties of a good recording. Also, in the music scene, the speakers actually have to paint the picture. Good speakers will properly locate instruments in a symphony, or the guitarist on stage at a concert. The audio gear is all there is for music listening.

On the HT side, speakers are just one part of the system. When watching a movie, you have an initial distraction of a video source in front of you. Your brain now has to process sights and sounds, and probably can't do both CRITICALLY at the same time. You also have to keep up with the plot, characters, etc., so now you've got both sides of the brain going. My point is that you are probably less able to critically listen to the sound, as there is lots of other stuff going on to distract you.

The design of speakers for HT use is also quite different than for music. Music listening will often involve a room where there are a couple of good seats to listen from. The speakers are optimized for this type of environment. For HT, the speakers are often designed to cover a larger area, so that there is reasonable coverage throughout the room.

I agree that the Def Tech stuff is not to be categorized as "high end", but for the money, I think they are better than a lot of the stuff out there. One thing I've noticed about them, though, is that everytime I hear their powered speakers in a store, they have the sub level set WAY too high. I supposed that's a marketing gimmic, but to someone who knows what good sound is, it sounds horrible. Properly adjusted, they actually sound decent. Compared to many of the other manufacturers in the same price range, I think the Def Tech stuff holds up very well. I think their construction techniques are much better than most, as well. They don't spend any money on veneers or fancy cosmetics, so the money can go into building a rugged cabinet.

Okay, enough of my preaching.

Jason