What makes an expensive speaker expensive


When one plunks down $10,000 $50,000 and more for a speaker you’re paying for awesome sound, perhaps an elegant or outlandish style, some prestige ... but what makes the price what it is?

Are the materials in a $95,000 set of speakers really that expensive? Or are you paying a designer who has determined he can make more by selling a few at a really high price as compared to a lot at a low price?

And at what point do you stop using price as a gauge to the quality? Would you be surprised to see $30,000 speakers "outperform" $150,000 speakers?

Too much time on my hands today I guess.
128x128jimspov
Jafant I suspect you may have heard them in a non optimal set up. Also they can image narrower than other speaker setups, due to being coincident point source.   I remember when the q1 was introduced going to hear the demo on some unfamiliar spectacular audiophile tracks and thinking wow my CR’s don’t image like this. But then I asked for 2 standard tracks (a bill Evans and a Rickie Lee jones) and was surprised they didn’t sound very good. On my system and hour later those same tracks had so much inner detail they sounded like audiophile recording.

That being said, after hearing a few Raidho’s at a show 2 or 3 years ago I felt they had more upper frequency air than the TAD’s. Rather than ditch them I added ’stat supertweeters and subs. (which I do now sell as well, BTW)
I hear live acoustic music from up close often (and even a friend singing along to my system). On good recordings it can be shockingly close, even though my system may not tick every audiophile box, and may not be the system of choice for large scale orchestral works.
"What makes an expensive speaker expensive..."

=>Expensive parts plus Greed, Ego of the manufacturer (or its followers stoking the fires....), higher marketing costs than others and further excessive mark-up...

(Noone has ever truly accounted for the price of many of these speakers in terms of materials cost, cost of construction, etc... versus their more responsibly priced brethren (I'm talking facts and figures not marketing speak). All that happens is we keep hearing the product name and how that must make it worth it just because it starts with certain letters of the alphabet....not saying these speakers are not worth more but seriously, $100K, $125K and more all the way up to $225K, $250K and above???

"Would you be surprised to see $30,000 speakers "outperform" $150,000 speakers?"

=>No I would not as I've heard it from a few speakers (not just the brand I own) at shows and other listening environments and every day I hit play at home with a $20K speaker with a good system behind it :-)

MartyKL and others state a lot of good economic/market-pricing fact above but if you look at the analogies, the difference between a Lexus and a Toyota (fully configured in both cases) or Acura versus Honda (Accord fully blown out...), Nissan and an Infiniti (or other myriad examples) is "X"% in the single or low double-digits whereas high-end audio and speaker markup in particular is usually in the higher double digits (IMHO don't shoot the messenger) or more! High-end audio manufacturers should follow more traditional and conservative market-pricing models and apply a reasonable markup for premium quality; they might very well sell more :-)

Another point; there are companies such as Legacy who were committed to building a speaker and selling to direct to the consumer at the best possible price. The Focus used to sell for $3500.00 direct. Once the magazine reviewers got ahold of a set and gave them a favorable review, what happened? Prices went up up and up! There was an article in the Readers Digest magazine years ago comparing cable TV rates around the country. Our local service was held up as a model of fair price and service. ONE month went by before our local cable rates went north.

  I doubt if we'll see a post from a manufacturer hear that actually answers the question. Puzzling to me though is the fact that when I go to an audio show, the mega buck speakers never blow me away over my humble 20 year old speakers. (now selling for HUNDREDS of dollars!)