What makes an expensive speaker expensive

The real answer, is in the slide from Focal. Modernity, brand, perceived advancement. All of these contribute to what consumers perceive as value. I’m sure there’s more. However, there’s no real connection between cost or quality of the parts and the perception of the value of the finished product. That is an entirely subjective thing which good product managers milk for all they can.

What I can say is that most of the high end speakers come in around 20 to 30 times the driver cost for a single speaker. Mind you, I used the term "most" so for sure there are outliers. However as an investor, builder you want to be on the top of that range. For _most_ that is the math they seem to use.  The latest Sterephile has yet another example of this, the Marten Coltrane 3.  On the upper end of that range, and like the Sony AR1, has a very lukewarm review.  The review, like the AR1 concludes they are worth their price. Hah.  

Well, I guess latest smartphones that sell for $800 cost no more than $50 to make. Most things are way overpriced, but then again many people are overpaid or simply make money by doing virtually nothing. Sad but not really surprising. For some $100k is almost a pocket change, and there is quite a number of people like that.

Well, I guess latest smartphones that sell for $800 cost no more than $50 to make.

The R&D to make that smart phone is what cost $800, not the manufacturing cost.

Not really. The R&D, and design costs are fixed, but the number of units sold is not.  If you double the units sold, you cut your R&D investment per unit in half.  Now whether that investment actually produces "better" sounding equipment is another story altogether.

Bose used to have (may still) massive R&D spends, but they were laser focused on what consumers would pay the most for while spending the least.  It wasn't just about selling units, but about getting the ratio of price to cost as wide as possible. Not a bad strategy to make a company successful. The Bose Wave radio didn't just come out of a garage, it was tested and retested by consumer interest groups many many times.  Focal and other companies do the same, to various degrees. 

Lot's of ideas and in the end every company is very different.  Many companies are not that expensive to make, but they are large structures and priced accordingly.  Some give you a LOT of high quality components and hand made drivers with tons of R&D.  I know of two companies like this and both sound GREAT to me.  Every company has a different way to price.  The other thing I've mentioned earlier is that every company has a different points for the dealers.  I've heard numbers from 30% to over 50%.  That's HUGE.  When you hear of a dealer or manufacture selling for steep discounts, those are obviously the ones at or near 50% I would assume.  When you get a company where you can't get much if anything off, then they are probably much closer to the 30% profit margin to the dealer.  There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but it's a great thing to discuss and think about.