When a budget speaker is preferred to a high end one...

If a budget speaker is tuned to your ears more closely than the high end speaker of course it will be preferred. 

There is no difference between high end and budget speakers. Only the price.

Super high-end systems require a lot of work from the listener. Everything is laid bare. Most times I just want to play some tunes and enjoy what I’m hearing, not try for a critical listening session. You can be perfectly happy with very modest components. I urge everyone to spend time listening to statement systems, so you know what is possible but use that experience to help identify the characteristics that are important to you. I like critical systems, but I spend 95% of my time listening to my fun systems. 

i have much more fun listening to my budget bookshelf speakers than i do my big @$$ expensive ones.  I 2nd what russ said above in his last sentence. 

it really depends on what you are talking about many very expensive loudspeakers use very high resolution drivers and favor clarity over musicality so these speakers require careful matching to balance out the overall balance so adding a warmer dac or a tube preamp may be what is needed.

so the moral of the story is that the budget loudspeaker which may present less overall quality may be the more enjoyable because it is easier to live with because you  wont have  to work as hard to get that elusive balance between  resolution and musicality.

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect nj

Of course there is a difference between high end and budget speakers. What a ridiculous thing to say.

Which is not to say that all high end speakers are good and all budget bad.