Affordable vs. ultra expensive speakers - what's the difference?

As I get older, I've come to realize that my ears are what hear the music.  You'd be amazed at how much hearing loss the majority of males have after 50, I'm 55.  If you are younger you may be able to hear a big difference between speakers in the same setting but as you start getting older it starts getting more difficult.  Go audition some speakers and pick a pair that is within your budget and enjoy the music.  The odds of having a group of friends come over and marvel at the amount of $ spent on your speakers is pretty slim.  Good Luck!

Blutack makes for a really good gasket actually, it just requires a little brute force and ignorance (perhaps less of the latter) and I would have thought a brutish barbarian of an audiophile like you, might enjoy the sound and the challenge to swap them out for the hell of it?!!?? Ha

Seriously, that marvelous blue putty really helps, particularly on tweeters, in regards to ringing (or removing ringing).

With more money spent on speakers you should get better more rigid enclosures, higher priced more accurate drivers and usually (but sadly not always) a well though out design.

You will gain clarity in the top range and control in the bottom end, plus it should go lower.

When I switched from speakers I was familiar with to new ones that cost around 5-6X as much, aside from the treble clarity I noticed a surprising lack of bass overhang - the deep bass notes didn't continue for a fraction of a second afterward, they simply stopped dead and going back to the olde speakers it seemed that that bass overhang resulted in a smearing, if you will, of the music and a loss of clarity.  It was like listening to a bad in your garage vs. in a hall with designed acoustic space.

And a far as the Ferraris go, I wish I still owned my vintage Lamborghini, which was a hoot and a half, but which you didn't want to park and leave anywhere lest you come back to find it with someone's initials scratched into it.

I think there is a product that everyone is comfortable with at their price & means.  Mostly likely there will be a difference, but it's a difference you won't be able to tell unless you A B compare it.  If so, trying to find out the difference is moot, if you are not going to consider it.  I apologize if you are, but most people do not have such a large price gap range between the products they have in consideration.  Such is with our hobby, audial differentiation is so much more difficult to pick up than let says visual differentiation.  

The Hailey uses high-grade raw materials, top-tier crossover parts, skilled U.S. labor, and state-of-the-art milling and turning equipment to make its products, all of which carry considerable costs. The $47K Hailey, as expensive as it is, represents significant trickle-down-availability of almost all of the engineering features that were formerly only found in the company’s upper models.

Here is also something else to think about, just a fun exercise.  Monitor Audio PL 500 II Platinum Series, I think their top-of-the-line speaker, costs about $35K. You can buy a used Hailey, about the same price as well.  How about that?

i'm gonna change the numbers just to make it simpler.  the $2000 speakers have no value 5 years from now.  $10,000 speakers might still fetch $5,000 after 5 years and they may have been "$5000 more enjoyable".  Commodity equipment has little residual value once it enters your house.  just another consideration - especially if its better.