I don't think you can generalize - B&W has shifted to the pomps and pyrotechnics the boom and sizzle sound of Canadian made loudspeakers - the classic Britsh sopund can still be obtained from the likes of Castle.

Home theater has an influence IMO that speakers are getting far less dynamic with far less bass depth less tuneful and timbrally correct for the trade for image and funnelling sound to the center in a hollow kind of sound - but that gets you to buy a center channel surround and subs to fix up the poor two channel performance.

Listen to the B&W 705 against some of those British/Danish two channel speaker makers and you'll laugh at how truly outclassed the 705 will sound. And some here actually think it's a good speaker. So the Bose marketing has been copied very well.