I hate speaker pole too, and that's mainly why I use 2 Bose Compacts. I (like most of us here) set up/tear down all by myself and I don't want to deal with bulky speaker poles. Plus they are a safety issue as you pointed out. I realize that there's lots of speakers that are more powerful and cheaper than the Bose, but I don't want to be the one setting up/and loading that stuff. Welcome (back???) to the Bose Compact!