I had a friend who auditioned speakers for a year with me for a year. I finally settled for Paradigm Prestige speakers. I didn’t know at the time they were 2 1/2 way. Four weeks later this friend attacked an article from Stereophile Magazine explaining why 3 way were better than 2 1/2 way. Shortly after he told me he purchased a pair of 3 way SALK 3 way speakers. Since then I added a pair of REL SHO’s and they helped. However, I have stopped listening to my system because I think I should have purchased 3 way.
Larry, this is absolutely wild. My “extremely qualified” advice is to listen to your system - and enjoy it; our systems are better than 99% of what the general population has exposure to (let alone on a daily basis).
I’d be curious to know your friend’s thought process - or maybe lack of awareness - when he purchased the three-way speakers and then sent you an article confirming his purchase and your perceived loss. Hopefully this was unintentional on his part. If not, I don’t think that’s normal behavior and it’s more of a reflection of him than you and your great speakers. You literally need to turn up the volume and drown out the noise (internal & external) on you killer system.