While I like the sound of certain models, some years ago I grew tired of the care & feeding of tubes, after going through ARC Classic 120's, Mesa Baron, Golden Tube 40-watter, a Lazarus hybrid, and Audible Illusions M3A and ARC LS-25 pre-amps. Health issues have forced a serious downsize with my audio rigs in the past 10+ years however, so for now I'm using an HK3490 receiver modded by Stereo Dave's in OR.
http://www.stereodaves.com/hk3490.php Don't laugh...it does a surprisingly decent job with the 590's until I can scrape up enough for something better, and I have a few SS models in mind that I think would work well with these.
Having just read the entire thread/debate on DynaMax's DIY subs for his E2's, I probably have better LF extention than E2's (!) in this room,
. But I'm getting some room loading even with the overall size of 26.5' x 20', albeit an asymmetrical, not-audio-friendly lay-out. I'm sure glad I saved that extra $58,500. or so!
Honestly though, the low-Q bottem end is very good, and the dispersion and imaging as well as vocal clarity, and virtually no listening fatigue after I EQ'ed down the 2.5dB peak at 8-9 kHz. Without hyperbole I can say that the 590's sound better in many ways important to me than for example, my old $4500. Nautilus 803's, and that's saying something at the 590's price.
On the cherry finish: it was nigh impossible to find a pair in cherry (I'm pretty sick of black audio gear, especially speakers). So I gave up on cherry's and had ordered black 580's originally, but they had cabinet damage from the factory. Ordered a replacement pair but it was also defective, and one foot had been torn from a cabinet from UPS mishandling. Long story short: at that point JBL customer service was useless, so I called Harman in CT and JBL Northridge...by then in a fairly annoyed mood.
Eventually, they "found" a set of 580's and 590's both in cherry, and made a better offer on either model to compensate for the hassle of the defective pairs, so I bought the 590's. All told it took over a month.
These pix are the day I got them, before they were properly set up. (Notice warning sticker since they're front-heavy) -
P.S. - sorry for the off-topic.