Well let's look at the emotional response to the dig...

'Live PA' can have SO much difference to one person or another. For a start, the VRX's are designed for 'live PA' applications, which for many people (other than maybe here!) probably means the amplification of a live band.

Just the clean amplification of a REAL drummer to close to concert levels requires more than a PAS system for him alone! In fact, look at all of Bose's literature on the PAS system, and you will see their recommendation of an entire PAS system for each member of the band, including the singer(s)... Now, I don't know about you, but there aren't many bands in today's economy that are willing to pony up $2-3k EACH for a PA, each of which has to be operated independently (what does the sound-man do, run all the control boxes offstage for each one individually?). It's all very well to say you each operate your own mix, but experience has shown few live musicians have the technical chops (or the self control!) to mix themselves correctly night after night in different venues.

You see, there can be very different interpretations of 'live sound'. If you look at it in this light, it is perhaps easy to say that the PAS is indeed a 'joke' for this kind of application (no more than using a VRX would be a 'joke' in a country club situation, though!).

For the amplification of pre-canned backing, whether arranger, SMF's or MP3's, with their DRASTICALLY reduced dynamic ranges compared to 'live', the PAS can do a far better job, IMO, but if you do a mixture of some live gigs, some arranger based, some indoors at low volume, some outdoors at very high volumes, one of these things is just not going to cut it. At $3k a pop for the new L2's, and a stack of bass subs, you could buy an equivalently loud conventional system AND a TOTL arranger for that!

But I'm sorry, perhaps you ARE on the edge of the future of live sound... The VRX's are in fact a line array design like the Bose's. But built and spec-ed for an entirely higher level of performance and usage. Joke or not? That would depend on what you intend to use it for, and how loud you want to be....