The AMTs on these speakers --which produce the mids and highs-- are among the very best high-end drivers ever made. Clear and "liquidy" sound.
If they sound harsh or bright, it's because your gear or the recording is that way, and you're used to hearing them through speakers that won't produce all the upper overtones that make them sound that way. (The Heil drivers will reproduce WELL above the range of human hearing; you can put dog whistle sounds through them at 30K+ Hz and watch your dog respond to what you cannot hear...).
They are extremely fast, though: with their "squeezing" motion, they'll push the air out five times more quickly than a regular cone or done driver that simply "pushes" the air. That is why they sound so spine-chillingly realistic at times.
Their speed is also why there is a bit of a disconnect between the big --and much slower-- woofer and those Heils. The crossover point is a little too low for the Heils to work optimally, and the woofer can't sufficiently "keep up". It's hardly noticeable for most listeners, who will love the sound of these speakers, but if you have "audiophile ears", then you may tend to focus on it, and be more pleased with the Heils in a 3-way configuration, with a faster mid (and perhaps a faster woofer, too). The so-called "rock monitors" were made that way, and they are a difficult speaker to fault. Incredibly realistic and "airy" sound reproduction overall, in a league above most of the speakers commonly discussed here.
As for value, you'd get your money back without difficulty, just selling off the AMTs separately. You could then "ewave" the rest of the speaker and sell it locally. (If people could audition the "e'waved" speaker, they'd buy it, too --even though it wouldn't be quite as incredibly realistic on the mids-highs as the original. The driver speeds would actually match better.)
I'd pay the full asking price for just the Heil AMTs, any day of any week, to add them to my slow-growing AMT line arrays. Unfortunately, shipping those heavy suckers all the way to Hong Kong might make that en-economical, so this is NOT an actual offer to buy --that would be against the rules, anyway. But I'm sure there are others around like me, who are closer to you and who would thus pay lower shipping costs; the AMTs are not a hard thing to sell. The AMTs alone usually sell for more than that total speaker price these days online. Locally here in Hong Kong they often sell for about double that price or even more, although usually with a mount (stand) and some kind of adjustable crossover added, so people can put them atop other speakers as a super-tweeter.
Give them a good audition, before giving up on them. Let your ears decide.
You say your Dad likes "smooth" sound... the critical question here is what he'll be driving them with. If his gear tends to sound towards the harsh side, and he is using "smooth" speakers as a kind of filter to remove the harshness (quite possible), then these would not be the best speaker --although they are less harsh in general than some other highly-revealing drivers.
Again, give them an audition; while (thanks to those woofers and the lack of a midrange driver) they aren't perfect, these are fine-sounding speakers, that many owners treasure. They will sound better, to most ears, than almost all the other speakers out there. When new, they were among the most desired speakers in the market.
