Many American shoppers look at B&O in the used market and think "style over substance," so the speakers tend to be sleepers in the U.S. market. I still own the Beovox S-60s that were my main speakers for many years, and they still sound very good to me. The Beovox S-45 and S-75 were also very fine speakers.
I agree completely. The EPI 100 is too well known to be a sleeper, but some other models including the M180 can still be picked up inexpensively in the used market. I bought a pair of M180s a few years back for $10 at a garage sale. I re-foamed all four woofers and the speakers sound great.
Dr. Tinear, my soul brother, my dear friend, my fellow AKer in low-budget awesomeness...
Now we no longer only share a fondness for Technics belt drive tables, we also appreciate the M180!
I put an ad in the local freebie website recently, wanting to trade a pair of my growing collection of vintage speakers for an old DAC. Some Audio Dude agreed to trade his old 16-bit, 44.1kHz Denon DAC for my EPIs, so I hauled them down from the attic (heavy!), set them up in my living room, and invited him over to listen and do the trade.
After listening to them for over 20 minutes (toilet paper cardboard roll tube pressed against his ear and each driver), I finally got around to making sure the DAC worked. I casually said something along the lines of "this old DAC was supposed to be pretty good 20 years ago", and then he started getting cold feet. He spent another 15 minutes checking each driver and the tweeter pot, and I got that sinking, time-wasted feeling. "Uh-oh, there is a hairline little nick in this rubber surround", he finally announced.
"So you don't want to trade now?", I asked, getting annoyed and impatient.
"Well, that surround has a crack and blah-blah-blah". I had to ask him to leave because he just kept going on and on.
The gist of my cautionary tale to us audio guys (besides DO NOT BECOME THIS GUY!) is that I oiled up the vinyl veneer, and put them in my main system, since they were in the living room.
WOW! They give my Linn Saras a serious run for their money. And they are WAY more accurate and uncoloured than the Linns, but with a similar pleasant non-fatiguing sound. I had only ever really listened to them in the attic system with an old 45 watt receiver, but in my main system they really sing, with nice controlled bass.
I'm glad Mr. Audio Guy decided to renege on our trade!