What makes an expensive speaker expensive
I just realized that I did not answer the last question from the op... No, I would not be surprised to find that a $10,000 speaker could outperform a few $100,000 to $150,000 speakers, much less a $30,000 speaker. Its all taste.... the Accuton ceramic drivers are very detailed, but not at all everyone's cup of tea, just as the Raal ribbon, again very detailed, but many people prefer a good ole soft dome. Quality of parts is radically important, but in the end, its all in the execution. |
Ctsooner, The less expensive speakers are Ohm 100s with a pair of Rythmik 12" subs. This set-up features full bass extension for every recording I own, plus omnidirectional dispersion for 8 octaves. That combination of benefits outweighs the strengths of my SF Cremona M, Verity Parsifal/Encore, and Merlin VSM speakers for me these days. Those speakers will IMO outperform the Ohm/Rythmik in certain other areas, however, and I still love the particular strength of each system. For the last five years (or so) I’ve had the Ohm/Rythmik as my main system (listening room). The other are located elsewhere in my home. This raises another issue mentioned in this thread (aesthetics). The SFs are beautiful in my living room, the Ohm/Rythmik wouldn’t work there (WAF), even if I wanted to try it. It’s just a matter of personal priorities - which may change over time. It gets more involved than even that. The $70k MBL 101 will go louder than the Ohm/Rythmik and images more impressively (to my ear), but I don’t necessarily prefer it. I considered buying a (used) pair, but in the end didn’t pull the trigger. The band-pass woofer's bass response in that system is hard to tame IME. Performance and price don’t remotely track - for me. Performance isn’t everything and people’s hearing, taste, and priorities differ. Even comparing (essentially) full-range, omnidirectional apples to apples, I preferred the Ohm/Rythmik to the MBL 101 (admittedly not in every way, but overall). I expect that for many listeners YMMV. |
Having access to a place like this saved audio enthusiasts over the years. Some big Canadian brands may not of reached certain levels of success had it not been for the NRC up here http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/solutions/facilities/indoor_environment.html R&D is a big one, metals semi precious and otherwise, designing all aspects of a speaker, tooling, designing and milling of all the tooling and components, exotic natural material and master craftsman that know how to form it, some of its painstaking detailed work depending on the speaker. None of this comes cheap it all adds up. Then as mentioned low production will further send up cost. |
Marty, great response, thanks. I assumed that it was something like that where you felt it did somethings you LOVED. It's all about the emotion to me also. That's what the Vandersteen line does for me and why I keep listening for other speakers to beat them and they just don't. It's funny as I was reading John Atkinson's review on www.stereophile.com on the Vandersteen 7 mk2 along with Vandersteen's new high pass amp that matches. He said that even at that price they give you more than you expect, but that he has to go back to listening to systems he can afford, but hated to give them up. Kind of sums up all of audio for 99% of us. We are fortunate to find manufacturers who know what trade offs they can go with at the various price points. For me it's Vandersteen and nothing that my older systems have done can come close to bringing me into the music and for once I can finally just sit and listen all day and not realize how much time has passed. I have always loved listening, but it hasn't been like this since I first started with my first system (although even at 9 yo, I was upgrading that system within the month). It's what we do and why we post on forums with strangers and meet new friends while doing it. Meer, that's dead on IRT Canadian companies. That's why I respect so many of the other brands for doing what they've done without all of that free R&D help. just shows what great minds are into audio. |
