It's not like there is a directly proportional relationship between price and sound quality. You can have an under-performing front end or speaker and the other end of the chain might be an over-performer that functions at a much higher level than it should at the given price.
That is going to tend to blur results on this sort of survey.
My systems were for years comprised of well assembled front ends and less expensive but over-performing speakers (Vandersteen,, Energy, Spica). My ratio then would have been about 4:1 in favour of front end.
After a recent upgrade my cost ratio has reversed to about 2:1 cost, speaker to front end (turntable, arm, cartridge and phono preamp).
That is going to tend to blur results on this sort of survey.
My systems were for years comprised of well assembled front ends and less expensive but over-performing speakers (Vandersteen,, Energy, Spica). My ratio then would have been about 4:1 in favour of front end.
After a recent upgrade my cost ratio has reversed to about 2:1 cost, speaker to front end (turntable, arm, cartridge and phono preamp).