What makes an expensive speaker expensive


When one plunks down $10,000 $50,000 and more for a speaker you’re paying for awesome sound, perhaps an elegant or outlandish style, some prestige ... but what makes the price what it is?

Are the materials in a $95,000 set of speakers really that expensive? Or are you paying a designer who has determined he can make more by selling a few at a really high price as compared to a lot at a low price?

And at what point do you stop using price as a gauge to the quality? Would you be surprised to see $30,000 speakers "outperform" $150,000 speakers?

Too much time on my hands today I guess.
jimspov

Showing 1 response by audioman58

More times yhen not the cabinet can cost more then the drivers
And Xover which it should not. Companies like Harbeths 
Not much to the cabinet, or that expensive of drivers.they have a excellent patented midrange material  ,that being said the xover vs 
The big names that use premium parts like Mundorf silver gold oil 
And top resiryors,inductors top quality wiring  harbeths uses nothing even close but charges a high premium vs actual build cost like a garage build,with quality veneer. Open baffles if using Top drivers ard a Superb bsrgsin, as is new Martin logan,Maggi
Even Electric with engineer Jones forgot first name builds great
Speaker for thd money .most big $$ speakers are a hyped up scam
I have worked with loudspeaker design and cost they add all $$ Per hour in what they want maybe $200 a hour in R &D time plus 5x in cost for material s thrn overhead. There is the price  
Look at Magico, Wilson Radho, YG Acoustics. Sure they sound excellent  $100 -to $200 k for s pair of speakers give me a break .
Evrn 50k. $20'k should bd absolute max plus 20% off.
TheRe are a lot of quality speakers even under $3 listen first z,!😆