Speakers under $50k that rival $200k+ speakers?

Hearing is literally individual in wiring and mental wiring of interpretation, inside the individual. There is correlation and similarities but all 100% individual in build, components, and wiring. (biological, neural, etc)

Therefore no single speaker will be intepreted as exactly the same by any two people. Similar, yes, no doubt.

At $50k, we are talking ’nuance’.

Nuance is going to be personal. Very personal.

Individual.

Thus... no speaker in the pinnacle area is going to be inherently best over another. On paper, yes, one will be better via measurement and engineering criteria and weighting applied to those given tests and comparisons made.

Our measurements are imperfect, incomplete, and do not tell the whole story well enough to have the measurements be the arbiter. Not by a long shot. The ear is king in these things, and it’s not about the personal interpretation aspect, either.

In the final analysis...regarding the individual idea of satisfaction with the given speaker - anything goes and anything will go.

Buy what you like, price is nearly meaningless at this level. (and almost meaningless at all other levels as well, to a large degree. It's a complex story to unravel such a point -at best.)

There is no black and white fixation and fixer to help cling to here. Work for it, there will be no free rides on the coattails of dogma, in this case.

kef blades are under 50k. They are full range

This question can be applied to any product category ( we are talking audio equipment, right ). In my journeys, and we are talking speakers, some expensive $ speakers fell short in living up to their capabilities, because of the inadequate room, associated gear, and other conditions presented before them.

With a sub, properly integrated, Revel, Fritz, Joseph YG, Sonus Faber wide body speakers, and the smaller Gryphons, given modest sized rooms, treatment and limited listening location.

I'd put them up against any speaker at any price in terms of soundstaging and ability to play a variety of music very well, and having a smooth tonal balance without artificial harshness or detail.

What I want out of a super speaker is a wider listening location, ability to fill a larger room, and exceptional dynamic range.

But, limit yourself to modest homes/listening areas and there's a number of speakers I would argue would sound as good if not better.

Best,
E