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The new dynamic in speaker pricing

Yesterday I received the latest issue of the Absolute Sound mag. This issue has the round up of the varying speaker manufacturer’s wares along with the retail pricing. One thing that struck me is the number of speaker manufacturer’s who have a speaker in their line up that cost close to a $1M!! There are good number of speakers now available with prices in the $700K+ range. A few manufacturer’s are also a little ’glib’ with their top model pricing, such as Oswalds Mill--who state- price upon inquiry only!

This new speaker pricing dynamic is interesting, as it clearly indicates that there are buyers out there who are happy to pay these prices and presumably enough buyers to make these products viable. A trend that is certainly interesting and yet questionable as to how it will impact the hobby as a whole.

Opinions on this trend?

128x128daveyf

Showing 1 response by clearthinker

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

In most cases with ultra high price speakers one thing (many things) you are certainly paying for is a very large number of drive units.

Sensible speaker designers who realised that bling is not the way to go for good sound discovered many years ago that above two a proliferation of drive units worsens the sound quality.  This is easily explicable by the number of interactions between drivers:    2 drivers - 1 interaction.   3 -3     4 - 6     5 - 10     6 - 15  and so on.  Don't think about the designs with 10 or 15 drivers.

Multi-way cross-overs don't help either.

Keep it simple, good design and build quality is the way to go.

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