Its a long time since I heard them regularly but I always thought them overly bright, especially without sub.

Yes, they are still worth considering.
They NEED a (powerful) subwoofer as they are lacking bass, especially when room acoustics at home is not very good.

They are very bright and somehow "punchy". If you're listening to some powerful rock tracks like e.g. Tina Turner steamy windows the snare drum has real presence and punch. They seem to reveal great details compared to other speakers and I still love them. Instead of harsh I would describe them as very clear.
My wife prefers the Beolab 5 mainly due to the sheer size of the Beolab 1. In a big room it's no problem with Beolab 1.

It would be nice to hear a more professional sound description/assessment and comparison from Geoff Martin about the Beolab 1 compared to other speakers in the range.

I have BL1s and really like them.  Like many, I've never heard the Pentas so I cannot directly compare them.  However, I have read about them on this forum for many years so I know a bit about them.  Here are some interesting links about the Pentas relative to other B&O speakers (unfortunately, no BL1s):

link 

/forum/general-discussion-and-questions/review-and-comparison-beolab-9-versus-beolab-penta-mkiii

Here's my story:

I upgraded from BL8000s and was considering the BL9 (new) vs BL1 (used).  Aside from the bass (which can be mostly fixed with a sub), I could not hear great differences between the BL1 and BL9 (so I'd say much of the above threads' comparisons between the pentas and bl9s probably apply fairly well to the bl1 (aside from the bass)).  I chose the BL1s because the BL1s a) sounded quite similar (except for the bass), b) looked much better in my room and c) were much cheaper (new vs. used).  If the cost was similar, I still may have gone for the BL1s, but it would be a much harder choice.  If the BL9s were cheaper, then I'd deal with the short penguins in my very tall room as there's probably some advantage to having a newer speaker - my BL1s are almost 20 years old and because of their size and weight will be difficult to repair should they fail (as well as the difficulty of getting parts).

The consensus on this site about the BL1s (from non-owners mostly) is that they lack bass, are overly harsh / bright and shriek at high volumes.  To this I say, get a sub, your harsh/bright is my detailed and they don't shriek until the walls are shaking which I don't do very often.  I've had them for ~10 years and couldn't be happier with their performance (and looks).  Although, if you plan on moving any time soon, this might change your equation (they are 6 ft tall and probably weigh ~100 lbs (the heavy base comes off so this helps a bit, but the tower is still long and heavy = awkward).

Stan

Since we're discussing the need to add a BL2 to the BL1, I'm interested in thoughts on this:

I currently have x2 BL2 subwoofers in use with my BeoSystem 4. I always preferred to have a subwoofer dedicated for the LFE channel in a surround system. However, I'm wondering if I should use one of those BL2 subwoofers to be used for the connections of the 2 BL1 speakers that I'm using as front channel speakers. Could the BL1 speakers benefit from having a BL2 subwoofer connected DIRECTLY to them to increase their bass rather than the BL2 being dedicated for LFE? In this situation, I would still have another BL2 that I could still dedicate to LFE. Thoughts?

True to this day. They are immensely powerful on mid and treble, but fall apart on bass.  Add a BL2 and they are spectacular!

Lee

I have to say that I would rather get Beolab 9. Cheaper than getting Beolab 1 and Beolab 2 and, imo, better sound. Also, a much smaller setup.