Douglas - You make a good point. I have heard my own speakers demonstrated at shows and felt they didn’t sound nearly as good as they do in my own home with my front end gear. It’s all about synergy and set up. That said, I did have a pair of entry-level speakers from a well-known company. I owned them for nine years, and never really enjoyed them (I know: Why did I buy them? Because they were the best I could afford at the time.) I kept improving my source components, amplification components and wires. Yes there were some improvements, but in the end, I decided it would be cheaper to replace the speakers than end up with a $15,000 front end feeding a $1,000 pair of speakers. So, in a sense, the cost and effort of wringing out that speaker’s full potential was simply less appealing than the short cut of replacing the speakers, and ultimately saving time and money. I did so, and couldn’t be happier with the speakers I upgraded to. Eight years on, I have no desire to upgrade again.
I am sure you would agree that, properly set up, a top of the line pair of, let’s say, Focals, will out-perform a properly fed and set up pair of sub-$1000 Elacs, for example, no matter how much is spent on the electronics or how much effort goes into proper positioning and room treatments.