[Sorry, I accidentally posted the above before I was done writing it, and wouldn't you know, Warren punched the button on his post so soon after mine that I couldn't delete it and continue writing within 10 seconds of having clicked by mistake! Anyway...]
Point is, there soon started to appear in these forums posts deriding the 2.4's not necessarily for their sound - which as with any particular speaker will be subject to personal preference - but for a perceived lack of good value. They were only 2-way. They didn't go very deep or really loud. These posters didn't think they sounded as world-beating good as some reviews seemed to promise. Since Thiel makes their own drivers, there of course weren't any posts about driver cost per se, but several posters felt that over $2K was way out of line for this fairly diminutive though obviously high quality speaker, and there were even insinuations of price-gouging compared to larger speakers from other companies in the same price range.
Meantime, on other threads people were raving about Kharma's nearly-$20K small floorstanding 2-ways, as was Jon Valin in TAS. Not unlike the Caravelles, there were comparisons to much larger speakers costing multiples of their price more, and declarations of exceptional value for the money. In Stereophile, John Marks raved about a stand-mount 2-way from Peak Consult that cost in the same ballpark as the Kharmas. Nobody that I can recall busied themselves breaking down the component cost or profit margins on these speakers.
NOT TALKING ABOUT THE SOUND OR DESIGN OR PRICE OF THE SPECIFIC PRODUCTS I'VE MENTIONED - which I can't do because I've only heard one of them - my take is that the notion of value in the high end marketplace has relatively little to do with sound, or the cost of parts, distribution, margins, engineering effort, manufacturing prowress, or even the reputation of the manufacturer. It is much more about perceptions, which in turn have more to do with 'buzz' than sound or reputation (yes, I think sound quality often has only a minor correlation with buzz).
In this universe, a notably high or notably low price can work for you, but a middle-of-the-road price can work against you. Being a well-established brand name can work against you, but being an esoteric or new name can work for you. Running a big ad campaign can work against you, but depending on internet chat or a crusading reviewer can work for you. Adhering to accepted science in the design process can work against you, but touting vague sonic claims based on speculative hypothoses can work for you. Making products that have been widely heard can work against you, making one that most audiophiles have never heard can work for you. In the battle for audiophile perceptions, familiarity of brand names and engineering claims can breed contempt. If it's commonly available or commonly known, it can't be uncommonly good. Economies of scale are generally looked-down upon, but a proportional connection between price level and performance level is widely accepted.
I'm not here to comment the actual value of the Caravelles, about which I know absolutely nothing. I'm just observing that in this thread, there seems to be the camp which thinks they are an unbelievablely great value (mostly owners and dealers), and a camp which suspects that they are in some way a mediocre-to-lousy value (who have probably never heard them). It strikes me that there seem to be no opinions that the speakers are merely a solid value, appropriate to their asking price within the context of the high end marketplace. They've either got to be overachieving near-miracles or overhyped quasi-rip-offs.
As I said at the top, it makes me smile. The concept of "value" in our hobby is so wildly variable and subjective (and so many discretionary dollars are involved that would mean so much more going toward food, shelter, medicine, clothing, and eduction for so much of the rest of our world's population), that the entire subject should probably be off-limits for any discussion among audiophiles from now going forward. Otherwise it just becomes laughable, meaningless, pathetic, and maybe even obscene. IMO. Spend what you want, buy what you want, rave about it all you want, but please spare us the proclamations or condemnations concerning "value". It's an evaluation quite apparently totally irrelevent and impossible to uniformly apply to this hobby.
