Any time you encounter a speaker designed for monitoring rather then technicoloring the music, your bound to find strong negative opinions. Take negative opinions about any monitor with a grain of salt, chances are the problem wasn't entirely the speaker.
It is all subjective. I have a very neutral (some would call "reference") system in my basement (Marantz 7, McIntosh MC30's, Thorens 124/SME, Quad 22L2), and my living room system is my "period correct" system (Fisher 500c, Thorens 124/FR-54, JBL C36-D123/075/N2600) and although the "reference" system is far more linear, balanced, revealing, detailed...all those wonderful things we think about when we talk audio, the vintage Fisher/JBL system is down right fun and the system that gets used most in my house supplying the first and second floor of my house with music from the second I walk in the door from work and off right before bed!
Everybody who has listened to my "period" system (audiophiles and non audiophiles) love the dynamics, the big sound, the sparkling/dazzling highs, the huuuuge midrange, and the ultra exaggerated soundstage. Although the vintage system is VERY colored, and no where near linear, it is engaging, thrilling, dazzling...it IS the sound that was the genesis of HI-FI.
If you are looking for realistic and balanced, neutral presentations, transparency, and any of the other catch terms that are associated with "audiophile" then the products being offered by many of todays higher end speaker companies will run circles around almost anything vintage. But vintage speakers have a fun factor that can't be discounted by any of audio purests (the aforementioned Cerwin Vega floor standers that were suggested up the thread were incredibly colored and miserable for fine detail and soundstage, but had better bass response than any speaker of that generation....those suckers can rock a house with Zeppelin like no others!!!)
You also need to think about what you will mate your vintage speakers with...tube or solid state, high power or low power, analog or digital....all of these variables will factor into your choices. I tried 3 different sets of vintage speakers on my Fisher (Polk 7's, Kef 103.4's, Wharfdale w40's) until I found my JBL's and realized they were a match made in heaven. Those same JBL's sound like crap with my Mcintosh SS gear....they just weren't designed for that. So matching is very important, hence you need to think about which end do you want to start with.....sources, or speakers.
Plus, environment plays a huge part of the speaker choice as well. If you are going to have perfect triangulation for your seating, the JBL monitors are glorious, but slightly off axis and JBL monitors fall apart. For corner placement, spekears like Klipsh Cornwall's/Heresy's or Electrovoice Atistocrats may be the best choice for using tubes, but not SS. The choices are infinite, you just need to "start" somewhere. Fall in love with a set of speakers and find the front end to match it, or fall in love with a set of amps/preamp and find speakers to match...this is all part of the fun in this hobby.
James R.
