An audiophile dilemma

Onhwy61
I have read a lot of posts where any number of speakers have a cheering section and loyal fans. They all think their speaker is a great speaker.

My problem is this:
This is a mature industry. The design principles that consitute a state of the art speaker should be well known to all engineers. Which to me means, all speakers should look similar and have a lot of common features and design cues. If one speaker costs $1,000 and another cost $20,000, then that difference in price should be readily apparent and obvious to any audiophile. This is not the case.
For instance, why does a Vandersteen, which I am sure is a fine speaker, cost tens times what my Polks cost? Do they know something Polk does not know? Do the components cost more on the Vandy? How much can a driver or crossover cost? Do they drive the price up by $12,000 dollars? The Vandys 'sound' better? WHY?
It should be a science. Not magic. In spite of all that I would try a lot of them if it wasn't for the high cost. Lastly I live in an Audio desert, so I will never hear the top of the line stuff. BTW, of all the speakers I have owned, I never heard any of them before purchase. No regrets so far.
Cheers.

For instance, why does a Vandersteen, which I am sure is a fine speaker, cost tens times what my Polks cost?

I can't answer on the price differential you mention & I have no idea which Polks you use & which Vander you are referring to, BUT, between a floorstanding Polk (9? It has 6 drivers, reflex loaded) & a Van 5, I must admit the Vand was much-much better for music.

* better high frequency, the V seemed to go much higher;
* better timbre, the Polk sounding shrill on a specific FR (upper violin notes);
* Van had bass extension and resolution vs the Polk stopping at midbass;
* far better resolution overall;
* the fee of dynamic impact was quite good on the Polks;
* Generally speaking, with the Vand I had musical coherency that I didn't have with the Polk. The Vand reproduced a coherent simulation of an orchestra, the Polk sounded small & tinny by comparison;
* Note, I listen to classical i.e. natural un-amplified instruments, so results could differ with other music.

AFAIK Polk is a very serious company, so the speakers I heard were probably designed for HT use rather than to play Mahler.

(The thing is, I'm one of the few people in the world who don't actually like the Vandy. Admittedly, they produce good speakers & value for money as these things go.)

Rok2id -- You did mention your Polks further up. Sorry, I hadn't noticed. The model I heard is the 9.

Gregm
Your comparison of the polk and vandy was very interesting. Having never heard the vandy or the polk 9, I cannot comment further.

I used the Vandy and Polk in my example just because they are two well known speaker brands. One highly thought of on audiogon and one not. Many other speakers could be subsituted in their place.

The point I was trying to make is this: If great speakers are being made, then the knowledge exist, so why don't all producers make great speakers. What makes a speaker great, and how much does it cost to make one? I used the price thing to show the wide differences in price and wondered what was the cause of this. I implied that surely crossover networks and drivers cannot account for this difference.

I used the mature thingy to say that are some down right weird designs out there in the market. What accounts for that? After all this time, don't the engineers have it down pat?

I get the 'price point' marketing thingy. And of course, speakers should be judged and priced based on how they sound.

Thanks for your response.

One loudspeaker can cost significantly more than another for the same reason a Porsche cost more than a Subaru. Both have four wheels, the same style engine, disc brakes, etc. The Subaru even has 4WD, something only the more expensive Porsches feature. While there definitely is an element of luxury goods present, there also are engineering differences between the two cars that could easily justify a large price differential. It's in the details.

If you've never heard better quality loudspeakers, then why such a strongly held opinion against them? Also, we're not talking about state of the art, we're talking about great loudspeakers. I'm thinking along the lines of Totem Model One, ProAc 2, Vandersteen 5, Magnepan 1.6, Quad 63, Gallo 3.5, Harbeth 40 or Sonus Faber Cremona.