high end speakers are overpriced


An mdf box with drivers with an acceptable finish can cost as little as a few hundred bucks. elac debut 2 and B&w 607 and dali spektor 2 Q Acoustics 3030i are all a few hundred bucks.

If you replaced the drivers with scanspeak illuminators and added an extra piece or two of mdf for more bracing it would cost only several hundred bucks at most. So the total cost would still only be $1k for state of the art speakers. 

However you find these same drivers in bookshelf speakers costing between 5k to 10k, perhaps even more. 

As you can see, it is perfectly possible to produce state of art speakers for well under $1k. It is greed that excludes many audiophiles from enjoying the beautiful sound quality of these higher quality speakers.

In conclusion, do not buy high end audio again. Just save youre money and make your own, just like Mr Erik squire and others have done. 
kenjit
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.
" They are custom tuned hand tuned and tweaked by ear. Proprietary technology. They are tuned to sound correct. Most speakers out there are not. That makes them very unique."

They are also imaginary and nobody cares, you know that, you are just here to annoy.

BTW MC he is located in the UK, so shipping won't happen, however he could post photos, however he would have to really have them first.