I have spent lot portion of my life with audio and got 604 last year. It was painful to have 604 as a main playback system because it didn't sing beautiful by just connecting speaker cables to them. I can tell that I have learned a lot about audio through Altec and I had to refrellsh all the old knowledge that I thought I didn't need any more.
I feel Altec is a very special speaker. It is so sensitive to express every information which CD or LP has. It takes out all the defect of all the related audio and source. I found problem with pre and power amps and had to re setup analog system through Altec. They are like a trainer of audiophile. If you are not very well trained and not ready to put lots of effort to get them right, you might give up saying Altec is trash.