I started out in the hobby with AR5 speakers. Even now there are a set of AR 11, AR 2ax, and 4x around the house. It has been fun to refurbish those old war horses, keeping them as original as possible. The 2ax and the 4x are great to listen to as they take me back to those early days. My first good turntable was an AR also. A few years back when I decided to put together an end game (for me) system I chose Salk speakers and AVA electronics because of the obvious value and that they seemed to me to have a bit of the spirit of American manufacturers in the early days of HiFi. I'm sure that there are many old HiFi nuts out there with similar experiences. We can still hear!