Modifying Crossovers

For the manufacturer to move from caps that cost less than a dollar each, to ones that cost $5 or more, ends up raising the price at the consumer level by much more.

...and just to be clear, people are generally not upgrading $1 capacitors to $5 capacitors. Just go out to Parts Express or Parts ConneXion, choose a capacitance (like 0.1uF) and look at the range of pricing. Want to spend $431.68 on a single cap? You can do it! Image what a crossover full of premium parts would do to the price of a speaker. 

Yeah, I spent about $3000 for the parts in my current crossovers. These are high quality parts, but FAR from the most expensive parts available. I’ve seen some crossovers from Tidal and other high-end brands that use parts that are several times more expensive. Even at volume pricing, these crossovers could easily cost $5000 to $8000 in parts.

A number of years ago, I talked to the designer of some high-end speakers about how he picked crossover components. He said he listened to a variety of parts and selected the ones that offered acceptable performance for his cost target and the available space, AND that were also available in quantity from a vendor he was confident in. But he said the choice was rarely his favorite from a sound quality perspective.

A lot of the best sounding components are made by small manufacturers with limited production capacity. A speaker manufacturer that intends to sell hundreds or thousands of units can’t take the chance of designing in parts that may not be available when they need them.

I think it's true that in general, speaker makers have put a retail price of 10:1 at least for the electronics, so a $1 capacitor has to be sold for $10 to make a profit.

Exceptions here are manufacturers that make their own drivers, they can exceed these margins by quite a bit. 

B&W and Magico are some of the rare manufacturers who use high end scrossover ocmponents in their high end speakers.

Don't.  Mummy knows best.

@simonmoon,  good post.

As you describe, results of sensible XO mods I've done have always improved the  sound, ranging from a clear and easily heard upgrade to the astonishing.