high end speakers are overpriced

Enough! Ship your best speakers here kenjit. Keith and Deborah can drive down and hear them. Mike and the half a dozen from Portland can come up and have a listen. Heck even Mike Lavigne can join us. Why not, you've been dissing everything under the sun, we're all eager as can be to finally hear what its all about. I'll write the whole thing up. And just so we both have some skin in the game, if even ONE of them prefers your speakers to mine or Mike's then I will pay shipping costs both ways.  

Put up or shut up, as the saying goes. 

I get somewhat opinionated on this topic. In particular let’s talk the high end boys with little to zero support or nothing but attitude when you have issues. Top on my list of “take this speaker and shove it” has got to be B&W. Had a driver casualty, very sad moment. Called to see about finding some help. Nothing but excuses. Ended up buying a driver blind from their website. I guess they had it though, so good for you, have a cookie. 
Similar to that is Linn.  Love the sound but forget support. You need to go with network buddies to hook you up. 
I hate listing this one but Meridian.  I understand they now have an outfit in Atlanta to support their stuff. Fortunately, all owned is sounding nice. 
I believe I listed on another chat but have been very happy with Caintuck open baffle hooked to SET. They start at $549 and you don’t need to spend stupid dollars for no support.  Build quality is tank like and easily serviced. 
Another I picked up was Blumenstein, great sound and at the time great prices. The build quality in the cabinets is phenomenal. He’s since raised his prices. 
Go old.  The build quality for the cabinet is real wood.  Got some ugly thick plywood altec a7’s that have incredible build quality and sound great. I love their look, very retro machine or something. Then also got that the kind of “mid-century” modern look from some old JBL’s. 

@millercarbon 

I am not claiming that my speakers are superior to yours. If you want custom tuned speakers normally that requires payment upfront. I dont have any speakers to ship to you. 

All I am saying is that we are being taken for a ride. We are both victims so you should be directing your anger at the speaker companies not me. 

Here you go, kenjit OP

Hillbilly Surround System! FUGLY as heck, and probably sounds like crap, but he durn well made hisown self.

After a pint of corn likker (white lightnin') these will sound like Magicos or Rockports, right?

https://youtu.be/bli6Tk5CAJc

High end speakers are priced far higher than they cost to make. This is greediness. Many audiophiles are being told lies about how much skill and effort goes into making a high end speaker as a false excuse to justify their unreasonable prices. Many speaker companies use so called custom drivers which are just off shelf drivers with minor tweaks to cause confusion about the true cost of the drivers. Many companies dont mention anything about their cabinets to hide the fact that its just plain old mdf. Companies will also apply high gloss finish to the cabinets to make them look far more expensive than they are. Most people dont know how cheap mdf is. All of these are underhand methods to justify their crime.