High End Speaker Prices

This article misses a huge factor in high end speaker production, economies of scale, or lack thereof. It's infinitely more expensive to make one or ten or 100 of something than it is to mass produce it. Most speakers north of say $20K are made in relatively low, sometimes very low, quantities. This effects pricing greatly.

I couldn't agree with Jond more. Most of our hobby it seems depends on firms with only one or two people behind them, though they appear to be major players. It is obvious when tragedy strikes or one simply retires. The lack of high volumes makes much of what we admire very expensive.
It does raise an interesting point though, would high volume make something no matter how good it sounds a new "mid fi". I read some one describe McIntosh as being solid mid fi equipment despite its hi end cost.

Wow i stayed up all night thinking of this!!

09-17-15: Mapman
Quality comes at a price.

...and value is determined by price/per/quality ratio.
The smallest ratio usually best.

Better sound is in the ear of the beholder. Generally the cost of goods for any high end speaker is about 15% of its MSRP. After that, costs can go anywhere. Some high end speakers are embedded with about 40% of marketing and distribution costs. Certainly low volume, like anything else, will lead to higher markups. Hearing is believing.