Average Price Spent for Speakers

Everyone reading this, please respond if you will. What is the average price you spend on a pair of loudspeakers? What determines that expenditure amount? Earlier in your hobby life, what determined how much when you were a neophyte?
Also, for non audiophiles, if there are any reading this site, what do you spend, and what determines that amount?
In the absence of non audiophiles, everyone out there, what do your non audio friends spend for speakers (if they do buy)? Where do they shop? What is the determining factor in HOW much?
Thanks for your response.
Larry lrsky04-06-2004 1:22pm

Not sure whether to answer the questions as if it is still 2004, or, well, 17 years later. Phrases like "Earlier in your hobby life" could still be 10 years after the question was posted. Weird. Not as weird as asking my non audio friends what they pay for speakers, I guess. I'll try to check back in 2038.

I don’t know what to call myself — the equipment I purchased since January 2020 is definitely higher than mass market, but the $8,000 or so total is much less than the $20,000 and up that some here have invested for their total system.  Not to mention, they have much more experience with various equipment than I.

I bought my new pair of Martin Logan 60XT tower speakers for $2200 plus tax last year.  I have neither the room nor acoustics to go with the electrostatics, though I am curious about their vaunted sound.  I hesitate to go to hifi stores to listen to their equipment when I have no intention of buying from them and don’t want to waste their time.

Magnepan offers the best values in speakers.
For beginnings, the LRS at $650 per pair.
If you can afford it, the 1.7i's for $2,100 per pair. 
If you can afford more, the 3.7i's for roughly $6,000 per pair.
They do require a lot of power.so you'll need an amp with at least 
150 watts per channel.  

My situation is a little unique I suppose.
I had a pair of $2500 Infinity speakers about ten years ago, when I happened to meet a really gifted speaker designer in Australia.

A decade later, while working for Lenehan Audio I spent well over USD$5k on the components to build my own pair of speakers. According to Mike Lenehan, he would have to sell the speakers I built for at least USD$12k
to make even a meager profit. They aren't strictly DIY, however, I did actually build them myself from component level. While I was building my speakers I took photos, which I have shared in my system page. I truly enjoy seeing other's system pages, regardless of cost, it's interesting and educational.

With my wife's approval I purchased myself a USD$12k power amplifier (I purchased it cheaper, used) which is about the same cost of the speakers.

The rest of my gear, the stands, music source, DAC, interconnects, Puritan power conditioner are all under the USD$12k total.

**Note: Lenehan Audio fine tune all of their speakers with a tuning bay on the back of the speakers, so that the impedance curve, the frequency response and the anti-phase measurements are almost completely matching throughout the frequency sweep in final tuning - I did not do this, Mike Lenehan did it for me.

$600 Klipsch RP-600M-PB
$1.5k KEF LS50
$25k Magico A5

Caveat:
I’m not your typical audiophile who upgrades over a long period, I’m working on my bucket list first audiophile analog/digital system hoping to land somewhere mid-fi (for lack of a better word).

My strategy was to find a speaker sound I love, then try to duplicate the sound as cheaply as possible while minimally sacrificing sound quality. After listening to many speakers via shops and shows, Magico and YG seemed to rather consistently sound great to me. I figured if I heard something I liked through the speakers, I should be able to closely reproduce the sound quality through these same speakers at home as long as I support it with the proper components and room treatments.

Normally, Magico and YG speakers were out of my budget, but in 2019 Magico introduced the $12k A3 and recently the $25k A5. The A3 sounded lightweight for my tastes.  After reading many positive reviews, I am purchasing the Magico A5 which I believe is a bargain that sonically punches significantly above it’s price point- it surpasses the S3 and competes with the S5.

The first 2 speakers, Klipsch RP-600M-PB and the KEF LS50, were purchased to satisfy my curiosity itch because these speakers garnered great reviews at their price points.