An audiophile dilemma

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.

One loudspeaker can cost significantly more than another for the same reason a Porsche cost more than a Subaru. Both have four wheels, the same style engine, disc brakes, etc. The Subaru even has 4WD, something only the more expensive Porsches feature. While there definitely is an element of luxury goods present, there also are engineering differences between the two cars that could easily justify a large price differential. It's in the details.

If you've never heard better quality loudspeakers, then why such a strongly held opinion against them? Also, we're not talking about state of the art, we're talking about great loudspeakers. I'm thinking along the lines of Totem Model One, ProAc 2, Vandersteen 5, Magnepan 1.6, Quad 63, Gallo 3.5, Harbeth 40 or Sonus Faber Cremona.

The analogy between autos and stereo equipment continues on this site, and it's like apples and oranges. Not the best analogy. We are talking of how something is preceived by ONE of our senses. The sense of sound. A car affects almost ALL of our senses.

But I will say this about autos. Engineers thru the years have conceeded that Ford got it right with the models T/A. The lastest top of the line Lexus has the same lay out, plus a lot more. A blind man could see the difference. Now my speakers (polk) are the model T and yours are the Lexus(fill in a name). Now tell me why yours cost $100,000 dollars more.
BTW, I do not have a opinion against high end speakers. What I feel towards the high end stuff is envy!! And if I thought the sound justified the price, I would have a pair.
Cheers

Rok2id, you seem very comfortable with your envy and lack of knowledge of high end loudspeakers. If you're happy, then I'm happy too.

Is that your answer?