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

@mahgister 

Yes I'm being a PTA but it's been bugging me so here goes.

What is your definition of acoustic?

If you are using it as a noun there's an "s" on the end.

ADJECTIVE

1. relating to sound or the sense of hearing.
   "dogs have a much greater acoustic range than humans"

2. (of popular music or musical instruments) not having electrical amplification.
   "a sad, gentle acoustic ballad" · 

NOUN

1. (acoustics)

   the properties or qualities of a room or building that determine how sound is transmitted in it.
   "Symphony Hall has perfect acoustics"

2. (acoustics)

   the branch of physics concerned with the properties of sound.
   "Tyndall lectured on acoustics"

3. a musical instrument without electrical amplification, typically a guitar.
   "these German-made acoustics are a pleasure to play"

or I'm just being an Ahole but I may not be truly understanding the philosophy your trying to convey with the term.

Acoustic: physical science...

And psycho-acoustic which is the science relating physical acoustic to perception evaluation and experiments... Correlation in listening experiments between objective factors in acoustic measures or with acoustic devices ( panels or any other devices) and the subjective experience...

--- I used passive material treatment: I experimented with balance between reflective and absorbing and diffusive characteristic of the room...

--- I used mechanical activated control of the room using Helmholtz method: H. resonators and H. diffusers... This is like a finely tunable grid set of bottles and tubes mechanically adjustable distributed at some key location in my dedicated room...

My philosophy is based on the scientific fact that we do not listen to the gear but to the system/room ...

My method of tuning the room consist in transforming the room accordingly to my speakers needs and to my own ears timbre perceptive ability and to other acoustical cues perceptive experience...( soundstage,imaging,dynamic,listener envelopment etc)

My motto is:

No upgrade could ever give the powerful transformation given by the controls over the three main dimensions related to any audio working system: mechanical, electrical and acoustical...

Dont upgrade anything BEFORE embedding it rightfully...

Is not clear?

or I’m just being an Ahole but I may not be truly understanding the philosophy your trying to convey with the term.

Got it.  I think it's just a grammar issue which could be a USA grammar issue???

psycho-acoustic"s" would be study of how we perceive sound

psycho-acoustic would be used to describe one of the qualities of perceived sound. 

I was trying to make sure that acoustic wasn't something completely different than acoustics.  In the future I'll just mentally add the "s" and we're good.

Not as much difference, but my Gershman Grand Avant Garde ($13K) sounds richer (?) than my Tyler Linbrook Signature systems (one piece at $4K). 

@fastfreight 

Congratulations on the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC. Yeah, I know. It is amazing how it just keeps getting better. I couldn’t have pursued this for 50 years unless each step didn’t result in more than I thought possible. Every day when I go down and turn on my system and listen for a while, I just can’t believe this was possible. It is incredibly rewarding.