There is a lot of text just to bitch to people that probably don't care about niche differences. We're talking about budget options here, not "audiophile" snake oil.

I also don't personally care about a random "audiophile" opinion, especially on a site like Lemmy. You have no credentials here, your opinion has no weight over anyone else's, that's why sites with testing and reviewing methodologies are most useful. From my experience most "audiophile" opinions usually are about as good as Monster cables were, pure overpriced snake oil. Especially when that audio opinion includes absolutely insane and anatomically inaccurate things like "I have two ears: I only need to speakers." You might as well be saying that Airpods are good enough because they're right there.

I do trust the opinion of places like Rtings where there's s defined testing methodology and direct comparisons can be taken from those. While the system I posted is definitely a generic mid-range system, it's what they recommended for a budget soundbar system, it's $350 all in. You provided anecdotal opinion and an alternative that's twice as expensive for a pair of bookshelf speakers (actually more, the MSRP of those speakers is $370 alone, plus the amp and the Sub). From a company that markets their products as the "Best Audiophile Speakers" no less. That screams of Monster cable type scam shit, even if it isn't, that's the type of snake oil marketing that drives people away now. And in an product industry where snake oil products are a dime a dozen, that's the opposite of what the serious companies usually try to do.