Curious what other people have in their systems that’s a total sleeper. Mine would have to be a pair of Pioneer S-Z9. They were released circa 2008 bundled with a pioneer network integrated amp. Original MSRP was $1800 USD for the system. I ended up buying these off Canuck audio Mart new old stock (sealed in the original boxes) for $200 Canadian shipped.
They actually were a collaboration with kef, with the drivers originally starting off as 7th Gen UniQ drivers but use TAD (also owned by pioneer) carbon/Plastic/ injection molded matrix cones (3 layer) to improve cone stiffness and dampening, Instead of the molded ridges kef uses on there poly drivers. They are pioneer cast aluminum baskets as well. Crossover also appears to use high quality brands on the caps.
They are very well built, piano gloss finish, 21 pounds, and have a frequency response of 36hz-50khz!! Seriously I have never heard bookshelf speakers this size that go so low!
They are 4ohm and only rated for 50 watts RMS but I’ve been using them at my computer with a bel canto s300i (300 watts RMS into 4ohms) and they sing!
Those speakers look fantastic, really interesting, especially for a “set”.
At home I got a set of Kef ref 103.3 one of the few with their specific equalizer kube 103. Refreshed both the old and a new replacement tweeter. Didn’t come around to doing the small donut inside but they play fine as long as you don’t go loud/heavy on the bass.
And then I have the infamous Bose 601 mrkiii. Just a fantastic speakerset that’s neither this or that but still plays really fun sound and much better than most people would assume a pair of Bose is. Talk about filling up rooms and being airy.