@OP PaulGardner
Are Bowers and Wilkins speakers overpriced?
IMO.... You need to go back to the early 70's Paul - to find B&W speakers that cost more to make, than they sold for. Now under John Bowers term, as the years progressed the speakers matured they were still priced well compared, to how they performed. Look at the Matrix line as an example.
It was not until John Bowers passing that the new management, brought in Nautilus, a different design (build and sounding), much more Eye Candy and the prices DOUBLED.
Eye Candy became such a big piece of the Audiophile selling package, and all gear and prices changed, not just B&W.
B&W speakers "are" popular, "are" marketed well and, "do" sell well. Their customer service has always been excellent.
This B&W support database leads others .
http://bwgroupsupport.com/*******************************************
@erik_squires Erik
Seriously enough with the theory.
Everyone knows that when you have a company like B&W that uses their own
anechoic chamber to tune speakers.....
.....once those same speakers make it into the AVERAGE shared listening space, tuning of upstream components and the ROOM is needed.
Please tell us what B&W speakers you have set up in your own space/s and the associated gear that was used.
Cheers