Yeah, you make some good points. The price could indeed be down to a large number of factors other than outright product quality; the veneer is probably no small part of it! The recent hike certainly makes them look a little pricey. The Neutrons are certainly a very good product for the money (an AVI theme here!) and I may have even bought them if the dealer had them on the day. Rear ports are a mixed blessing and require extra consideration when it comes to placement; fundamentally they're there to allow rear-wall reinforcement.
Sealed boxes tend to have the least sensitivity of any design and I think everyone would agree that such beasts don't give the impression of 'ease' that big boxes/drivers do. There's always a trade-off and I would have had something bigger if I had the room. As fate would have it though, the SA1s are fulfilling my requirements with sobering confidence, something that I almost accepted as impossible when I bought them (before I tried them at home and spent any time with them).
I would love to read a group test with the AVI Neutron, Spendor SA1, Proac D1, Harbeth HL-P3ES-2 and ATC SCM11. There's quite a wide price variance there too, with the Harbeths seemingly expensive like the SA1s.
What do you use Eddie?