I can be quite assured of this, is a modded pair of $6,000 speakers will out perform many $40,000 pair of speakers. Maybe discovering many different things to increase a speakers performance has my confidence in this. The parts to mod may be anywhere from about a hundred to maybe a thousand pending how much you do. My thinking is why would someone ever pay a speaker manufactuer $40,000 is beyond me when modding $10,000 or less speakers or so profitable.
Interesting, so what speakers have you done these specific comparisons with? Also, what makes you think that what you find subjectively pleasing is something other people would find pleasing acoustically? Those kinds of generalizations apply to you and your opinions, not necessarily all, or even many, other people. Perhaps they hear something you don't, that is possible you know, as per this article on hearing psychology: http://psy.ucsd.edu/~ddeutsch/
I think self pride and knowing you have a jaguar instead of a modded chevy is the deal IMO!
Well, if you can generalize a whole population of people who own certain items based on your own prejudices concerning the pricing differences and sound quality of those items, then it must be true... Or, perhaps you are just biased because of those prejudices.