To pricey

and here I thought the OP was proposing a toast to his old friend Pricey!

NO! The build/design and parts quality are superior to many British made hi-end speakers. Since B&W is such an aspirational brand they are often driven by subpar electronics with mediocre results. 

I was recently visiting a prominent High end shop in Denver looking a a Macintosh receiver and the sales person decided that the B&W 600 or 700 series bookshelf speakers would (SOMEHOW) equate to what I described my towers to be, in an audition of the MAC.
Needless to say He didn't make the sale. The Bottom line is though they sounded nice, a tiny lil bookshelf speaker can never equate to a quality tower speaker. It sounded like a six inch cone trying to emulate EVERYTING, all at the same time and was muddy at best.

@pennpencil   the witty posts are always short and memorable

How many takeovers, buyouts, etc. etc. has B&W been subject to since they were actually Bowers & Wilkins down in deepest Sussex?  Who owns them now?

Whatever you think of them nowadays, for the list price of any of their models it would be easy to find many superior-performing speakers made by different brands.