Welcome, John, and thank you for a well thought out post offering a different view--it is appreciated. It's easy to get caught up in the which speaker, or component is "better" argument, after all, most of us want our stuff to be as good as can be. Maybe a more constructive way to look at it is to think of speaker A being "different" from speaker B, rather than better. Like you said, the "better than" argument may tend to step on others' toes, sometimes without meaning to.
Having listened to a handful of different speakers myself, although not in a double blind test, the one thing I've gathered from it all is the similarly good descriptive that Ian spoke about. At the end of the day, all the different components end up doing the same thing--letting us listen to music for our enjoyment. Some just do it with a different flavor. And there ain't nothin' wrong with that!
John, I hope you continue to stick around a post in the forum.
