When a budget speaker is preferred to a high end one...

This is why my trusty Monitor Audio Silvers haven't been shown the door yet.  They just work so darned well.  I demo'd an SF Olympica with an MC452 driving it and was totally underwhelmed.  I come back to my system is far from broken, and have one of the rare moments where I don't want to tinker.  I do want to square off some sort of Klipsch vs. Zu on my upstairs system though.  

@theaudioamp @hilde45 @juanmanuelfangioii @akg_ca 

Thank you for your appreciation. Helps me continue to put my positive energy into these responses  :)

#psyop, have you seen a show  "Suits"?   One of the lawyers has an office with a wall of LP's, McIntosh amp, turntable, etc.  It's all decoration.  Never gets played.  Here's your sign.

@ghdprentice  It's never happened to me either in my personal system, and for the exact reasons you mentioned, proper research and auditioning.

@blisshifi   I have to say the Scansonic MB2.5s showed me what could be done with a sealed ribbon tweeter, better sound than the Esotar II I had liked in the Dynaudio Sapphires.

Occasionally I have been wowed by the sound of great budget system and its probably a combination of things that all went right. Rare.

I see speakers costing 10000s using cheaper drivers than ones costing 1/2 as much. With audio price doesn't necessarily equal performance.