Yeh, when I heard it I thought it was one of the best passive standmount speakers I'd heard. At the time, though, it cost about as much as most of the floorstanders I'd listened to. If you got it at a significant discount, I'm sure it was a good buy
Yeah, mine was 3200€ for a demo pair of speakers + stand if I remember correctly, when at the time time the MSRP was ~5000€ without stands. Although these were with a special walnut finish that added something crazy like 2000€ to the MSRP here (not sure why, for example Stereophile specs lists them at a "mere" +$500). Yikes.
Also proficient speakers from what I've heard, and once upon a time I did seriously consider them for a desktop setup, but ended up using the existing Audience 42s with a neat Topping TP30 tripath amp instead. I can't say how the BM5 would compare to X14A, especially being studio monitors rather than consumer speakers, but the X14A is originally from a higher price point, which makes them more lucrative at a glance when priced the same as B5M. Of course price isn't everything so the B5M could well beat them. It'd be subjective in the end, generally consumer speaker lines are designed differently on purpose - designed for very different listening environments as well the whole thing about subjective tastes and enjoyment over extreme technical accuracy. Some enjoy that neutral accuracy, some don't.
Anyway I guess I'm kinda being off topic here at this point. As far as the whole X14 waveguide thing, in the end y'all arguing about semantics on that one. If they wanted a super-directional waveguide, they would've done that. Doesn't mean they didn't given any consideration to it or that even a small waveguide isn't still a waveguide.