This funny


My Krell LAT-1 tweeters blew and guess how much they cost new?? 48.00. A 40,000 dollar speaker with 48 dollar tweeters. WOW
radrog
I was able to order it localy from a company...it costed 60.00!!?? a 60.00 woofer out of a 10,000 pair of speakers!!

That is why consumer speakers look "stunning"! Cheap drivers but beautiful (and expensive) cabinets. Partly they must fulfill an aesthetic roll as nice furniture and the manufacturers know that few customers will open the box to find a woefully cheap driver with a miniscule magnet and voice coil.

That is also why professional speakers may look butt-ugly but can sound significantly better. Instead of great veneer and aesthetics - a proportionally higher part of the cost will go into the drivers, which are expected to perform better and with lower distortion at higher SPL's.

Of course this is a generalization - there are plenty of exceptions in both camps - but, in general, each target market gets what it desires most...pros impress their friends with loud, dynamic and precise sound whilst consumers will tend to dwell on the overall balance of the design, which includes the aesthetics as much as the value of the sound.

All to say there is absolutely nothing wrong with ML speakers - they still sound good and look stunning!
For the money the speakers cost to purchase Krell should of gave them to me for free.

I think that is unfair to Krell...the aluminum cabinets are EXTREMELY expensive...especially if you consider the small sales volumes of this a higly exclusive 'statement" speaker! Sure a pro speaker with thick heavily braced MDF cabinets (cheap but functional) with pro drivers can sound better and cost less but it is going to be butt-ugly!
Radrog,
You have a pair of excellent speakers, independently of tweeter cost. If you had bought the tweeter from Krell it would have cost you the double, but I think they would have measured it and sent a selected matched unit. Many, many years ago when I used to build my speakers I measured tweeters and found great differences in sensitivity and frequency response of standard tweeters, even from the same batch.
Look at tube costs - a special tube selected for low noise and a special gain can cost you five times the cost of an unselected tube.
Usually when it comes to excellence we have to pay some more!
I am happy with the sound of the speakers just shocked me knowing the huge markup on them and not so desirable service from Krell......
Shadorne makes a great point regarding professional speakers. Parts quality is important and should be part of any big $$ speaker, period.

The mark-up and prices for high end gear is really not justified in many, not all, cases. Buyer beware and one must really have lots of experience to wade through the jungle of overpriced gear even though much of it does sound pretty good.