In happy times, I started off with RED LACQUER SCM20's with black grilles. These were upgraded to these black lacquer 100A's in March 1993, supplied with the then brand new revised amps, stock black grilles and these red grilles were made extra. The stands were custom made by Target, then in Luton where I lived at the time, adding a couple of inches to the height. They may not be the clearest of speakers (unless turned well up in pre-SL period), but they involved and entertained so well..
My current mostly inherited geriatric system from the mid 70's does good things in terms of 3-D and low level delicacy the big pre "SL" ATC's at the time couldn't do at low volumes (oh alright Ashley, it's the poor phase response of the BC2 driver plus crossover, but I don't care at the moment), but I fully appreciate Fox's excitement about his insurance purchase, as I'd have my 100A's (now SL bass unit spec) back tomorrow.
I'm sure that good speaker designers are fully aware of the issues in successful driver integration, and I remember it said decades ago that getting a two way speaker to work properly was bad enough and extremely difficult with a three way, but that's where the ART comes in, juggling the compromises around to get the most listenable sound possible. I believe that's how the old classic amps from the 50's and 60's were designed, and it hasn't done them any harm fifty plus years later, has it? I'd add that going active these days is much easier for an electronics engineer to do, since the crossover design is well into his/her discipline, where fine tuning an established "technically correct" design needs subtle listening and experience of the subjective "feel" of a design.
