I admit up front that I do not consider myself a true audiophile. The extreme sensitivity of audiophiles to differences to subtle for me to notice does not justify my wishing to have speakers costing six figures. The music's emotional content and the orchestra's performance is as intense in most systems for me.
However, I make a comparison to luxury watches. A $10,000 Rolex windup watch can be matched by a $10 battery watch. Why would I pay more to tell time the hard way. Cone speakers in cabinets are difficult to get right: the drivers need more complicated crossover networks and filters to compensate for irregular frequency responses and impedances, and the cabinets require extreme bracing steps to prevent the internal sound waves from the cabinet introducing passive speaker element effects. There are even cabinets made with concrete to address this. This is analogous to the Rolex windup watch. Planar magnetic speakers are analogous to the battery watch. They cost far less and have even frequency responses and impedances. They sound more like the live performances in the opera house I go to when I can than $50,000 speakers I heard at a public demonstration at a high-end audio store. The $50,000 speakers sounded better suited to resemble what one hears at an outdoor rock music show than a concert hall.