I realize I'm digging up an old thread here, but I just wanted to state for the record that after a few days of work and a few hundred dollars worth of crossover rebuilding and new internal wiring, AND with these speakers being properly driven (which was clearly important to the OP and not addressed above) by a single 500Wpc Yamaha PC5002M amplifier (the pro version of the 101M), I believe you'd all find that the QLS1s are a truly fantastic speaker, certainly much better than what's been described above.
The only criticism I can still agree with is that there IS a little extra midbass, though it's not much. I haven't done a frequency response sweep to make sure my potentiometer settings are dialed in properly, so this may be the answer to that. If not, I'd bet that a judicious re-stuffing of the midbass coupler's transmission line should get rid of most of the issue. Oh, and the cabinet, though already braced, can indeed get a bit resonant with some loud bass hits below 35Hz or so. However, this is fairly simple to fix with a dowel rod and some DIY instructions, and I actually intend to do this in the next few weeks.
I guess that ultimately it depends on what exactly what you want out of a speaker, and how you rank these different wants. I would say that a rebuilt QLS1 does almost everything quite well, and some things even better than that. I have no experience with new >$2k speakers, so I can't speak to that part of the OP. Just don't expect the world out of a completely stock model, and be prepared to spend some dough on a serious amp.
The only criticism I can still agree with is that there IS a little extra midbass, though it's not much. I haven't done a frequency response sweep to make sure my potentiometer settings are dialed in properly, so this may be the answer to that. If not, I'd bet that a judicious re-stuffing of the midbass coupler's transmission line should get rid of most of the issue. Oh, and the cabinet, though already braced, can indeed get a bit resonant with some loud bass hits below 35Hz or so. However, this is fairly simple to fix with a dowel rod and some DIY instructions, and I actually intend to do this in the next few weeks.
I guess that ultimately it depends on what exactly what you want out of a speaker, and how you rank these different wants. I would say that a rebuilt QLS1 does almost everything quite well, and some things even better than that. I have no experience with new >$2k speakers, so I can't speak to that part of the OP. Just don't expect the world out of a completely stock model, and be prepared to spend some dough on a serious amp.