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

@pcrhkr Your reference to the Ultralinear 100s brings back memories.

It was said that if you removed them from the carton and set them next to it and a big gust of wind came up, the speakers would blow away and the cartons would remain in place.

Industry Nickname: Ultrasloppy 100s

My own story:

I worked for a dealer and had a pair of these sitting on the highest shelf. We had a mishap and one of them fell off the edge of a shelf and landed squarely on top of a Pioneer HPM200. Being quite upset (it was my fault) I rushed over to check out the damage and discovered a totally disenintegrated Ultralinear 100 and a PIoneer HPM200 without a scratch. True story.

@audition__audio 

I think Shaw is dead wrong about thin walled cabinets and energy dissipation. Sure the energy is removed but by the vibration of the cabinet which adds audible colorations. 

The entire thin-walled concept as devised by the BBC research department in the 1970s seeks to remove audible resonances from the all important midrange.

Harbeth claims that their lossy cabinets help to lower these resonances into the bass regions and below the threshold of hearing.

It is a particularly audacious claim given that so many others seek to do the opposite, namely increase stiffness and mass to their cabinets in order to attempt to physically suppress these resonances.

Yet it's also a claim that's never been refuted in almost half a century.

Can 2 diametrically opposed ways of trying to do the same thing both be right?

In  this case I would guess it depends upon whatever priority the designer deigns is the most important - the purest midrange or the hardest bass slam?

@ataudioamp.

I don't own Wilsons.A 70hz. sine wave is about 14 feet long.If you have large dynamic drivers in a small room that can't be brought out in the room boundaries to minimize reflections, EQ is a band aid at most.What I'm saying is people i know who made their room sound better a lot of times went with smaller speakers.This improved sound stage, imaging, and overall low frequency integration with the room. Proper crossover design is the  #1 priority to make a speaker sound it's best in any room. EQ is needed when this not realized.

Explanation is simple. The guy who made the cheap speaker was a lot smarter than the other guy.

In my systems I have rarely if ever experienced a speaker at 1/3 the cost trumping another. However, in others' systems I have. As others have already mentioned much has to do with room placement, personal preference, room treatment application (or lack thereof) and system synergy. What's also key is the components' quality, or more specifically lack of quality. More expensive speakers in general will be more revealing, fleshing out weaknesses in gear so it may sound more fatiguing, may exhibit loose bass, etc. making the less expensive speaker preferred. Less expensive speakers commonly have "sins of omission", which may be a good thing depending on your system.