I have had a late 80s 4b & 3b with handles, also a pair of 7bsst2 silver with handles, very sexy, sold the 7bsst2 to finance a speaker purchase. Now I own 2002 7bst without handles and I think I perfer the looks of the 17" without handles. Currently I am waiting for my 2000 17" 3bst to arrive, hopefully by Friday, it's a perfect match to my 7bs.