Wow excellent job Jason, that was very informative, now I have some intellectual basis for understanding what I have been experiencing.
Yes, my package arrived as pretty much an absolute wreck, punctured on all sides, upside down, box opened on top and at the bottom, with 2 dings on the back right side of the speaker that I am prepared to live with, the volume knob also is dinged and kind of sticks, does not shift smoothly, still considering if it works right I will not necessarily change anything.
Does Fedex suck or what, is this just a generic problem, they appear to make no provisions to deal with heavier items the way moving companies do, this clearly counts as serial incompetence.