An audiophile dilemma


A friend of mine just bought the JBL PRX635 stage speakers and they sound just great!
These are not the typical high end speakers that are in demand among audiophiles and they cost far less than their high end siblings.
Sometimes I wonder if all the money is well spent, because for far less $$ someone can become an owner of a pair of these JBL's and be happy for the rest of his life.
Are those high end (and very expensive) speakers really better than the JBL's?

Chris
dazzdax
Rok2id, you are a frequent contributor to this site. If you cannot figure out what are commonly considered great speaker, then there is little hope for you ever moving past you preconceptions.
Onhwy61
I have read a lot of posts where any number of speakers have a cheering section and loyal fans. They all think their speaker is a great speaker.

My problem is this:
This is a mature industry. The design principles that consitute a state of the art speaker should be well known to all engineers. Which to me means, all speakers should look similar and have a lot of common features and design cues. If one speaker costs $1,000 and another cost $20,000, then that difference in price should be readily apparent and obvious to any audiophile. This is not the case.
For instance, why does a Vandersteen, which I am sure is a fine speaker, cost tens times what my Polks cost? Do they know something Polk does not know? Do the components cost more on the Vandy? How much can a driver or crossover cost? Do they drive the price up by $12,000 dollars? The Vandys 'sound' better? WHY?
It should be a science. Not magic. In spite of all that I would try a lot of them if it wasn't for the high cost. Lastly I live in an Audio desert, so I will never hear the top of the line stuff. BTW, of all the speakers I have owned, I never heard any of them before purchase. No regrets so far.
Cheers.
For instance, why does a Vandersteen, which I am sure is a fine speaker, cost tens times what my Polks cost?
I can't answer on the price differential you mention & I have no idea which Polks you use & which Vander you are referring to, BUT, between a floorstanding Polk (9? It has 6 drivers, reflex loaded) & a Van 5, I must admit the Vand was much-much better for music.

* better high frequency, the V seemed to go much higher;
* better timbre, the Polk sounding shrill on a specific FR (upper violin notes);
* Van had bass extension and resolution vs the Polk stopping at midbass;
* far better resolution overall;
* the fee of dynamic impact was quite good on the Polks;
* Generally speaking, with the Vand I had musical coherency that I didn't have with the Polk. The Vand reproduced a coherent simulation of an orchestra, the Polk sounded small & tinny by comparison;
* Note, I listen to classical i.e. natural un-amplified instruments, so results could differ with other music.

AFAIK Polk is a very serious company, so the speakers I heard were probably designed for HT use rather than to play Mahler.

(The thing is, I'm one of the few people in the world who don't actually like the Vandy. Admittedly, they produce good speakers & value for money as these things go.)
Rok2id -- You did mention your Polks further up. Sorry, I hadn't noticed. The model I heard is the 9.
Gregm
Your comparison of the polk and vandy was very interesting. Having never heard the vandy or the polk 9, I cannot comment further.

I used the Vandy and Polk in my example just because they are two well known speaker brands. One highly thought of on audiogon and one not. Many other speakers could be subsituted in their place.

The point I was trying to make is this: If great speakers are being made, then the knowledge exist, so why don't all producers make great speakers. What makes a speaker great, and how much does it cost to make one? I used the price thing to show the wide differences in price and wondered what was the cause of this. I implied that surely crossover networks and drivers cannot account for this difference.

I used the mature thingy to say that are some down right weird designs out there in the market. What accounts for that? After all this time, don't the engineers have it down pat?

I get the 'price point' marketing thingy. And of course, speakers should be judged and priced based on how they sound.

Thanks for your response.