Why pay so much for super high end?


Most speakers costing $50,000+ use Seas, Scan Speak or Accuton.

In DIY forums most speakers designed use bargain drivers and usually are only 2.0 designs not bookshelf or center speakers to complete a surround system.

I’d love to have a Scan Speak 11 speaker system for atmos with 3 way bookshelves, center and floorstanders.

Why aren’t the designs out there and why are you guys pissing away all your money.

Personally I won’t get an upgrade from my speakers unless it’s of this caliber and neither can I afford nor want to donate money to these thieves.

A 3rd party 11 speaker atmos scan Speak system would be nice but I’m not spending $250,000.

Why on earth aren’t there designs out there for this and why do you all piss away your money?

I don’t get why hi fi isn’t all DIY even honest factory direct companies mark up 300%.

Unless you pull in $1+ million a year and don’t have any time I don’t get it.

Are you guys lazy?

Someone easily could design a great crossover and cabinets for everyone and the days of paying over $3,500 for a pair of loud speakers if you got some time or know a friend who could build cabinets would be over. I know of people who could design cabinets that rival $100,000 speakers and cost less than 1% than that.  Someone with some experience could easily design a diamond, beryllium and soft dome and various versions for various tastes.

I don’t get it. Speakers are so simple.  Crossovers cabinets and drivers.

You guys just throw your money away I don’t understand it why?


funaudiofun

Showing 6 responses by wolf_garcia

There's a Richard Mille watch I like that costs $650,000. (I'm saving up). I think it also has some carbon fibre in it, and it is likely latte resistant.
Plenty of well made less expensive things are out there, and I enjoy finding those things, keeping the stuff that sounds great, and generally leaving my system alone unless something starts to bug me (maybe due to crossover cap degeneration or my imagination, I had some well regarded speakers that started to bug me…sold 'em on Ebay, bought a new-ish used pair of something that a friend owned and I had listened to and liked, and they're still playing beautifully after 4 or 5 years). Get used cables…amps that are on sale as a new model arrives…or just take the bucks you inherited from Uncle Bob and let your local Gear Salon (!) have their way with you….
As somebody who plays instruments and runs live sound for small venue shows, I beg to differ on some points bandied about here (are they being bandied? I'm not sure but whatEVER). Speakers project sound through drivers pointed someplace (remedies for this notwithstanding for this particular rant) while instruments project sound all over the place and vary infinitely in output, let alone direction. Stand in the middle of my listening room and play guitar, then play my speakers playing that guitar (I can and have recorded live "house concerts" in my listening room using expensive and arguably accurate mics). Utterly different, both good, and both musical. Since I can't get Vijay Iyer to play in my house, or fit an entire orchestra in here, my system does the job well enough for me to really enjoy this stuff anyway.
Stand facing one direction and have somebody play guitar while running around you. This proves nothing, but I thought it was an interesting image anyway. 
I like extreme high end stuff…I read magazines about the latest Ferraris and McLarens and Rockports (the speakers, not the shoes…although I'm sure the shoes are fine) and Richard Milles. I own 2 sort of high performance German cars (although one is a turbo Mini) that make me think I'm James Bond-esque, and both weren't expensive. For my silly watch obsession I just bought an Oris "Diver 65" retro thing for 1/24th the cost of a vintage Rolex Submariner "Red Letters" I saw in a shop in NYC last week (at a Ralph Lauren store…insane). And the Oris is friggin' cool…My "listening" rig (as opposed to my recording rig that I also listen to, but differently) is a pile of things bought mostly used but somewhat vetted…and many components like cables were insanely inexpensive relative to new…and it all sounds astonishingly fabulous all the time, and if something doesn't seem up to snuff I replace it. Less extreme (read "cheaper") hifi gear can astonish in the proper context with careful setup, and, for me anyway, finding those "gems of tone" is more fun than opening my wallet for new stuff I simply don't think I need.