Affordable vs. ultra expensive speakers - what's the difference?


Candidate 1: Affordable at about 3K

 

Candidate 2: Ultra expensive at 50K.

 

So what's the difference?

andy2

Yeah, with regards to audio, I really don’t believe there is an objective point of diminishing returns.

It is up to each individual to decide where that point is for each of us.

My rich cousin recently upgraded his previous speakers, Magico M3 ($80K), to the a pair of Von Schweikert Ultra 9 at $200,000.

They sounded slightly better in almost every aspect, and all those slight differences added up to a more compelling, involving listening experience. Was it worth the more than double the price for those small improvements? It was for my cousin.

And let me add, that the vast majority of music listeners out there, listen to MP3s on $20 dollar ear buds, with their smart phones, who think that those here who have only spent a few grand on their modest systems, have surpassed the point of diminishing returns.

 

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I don’t listen to $20,000 loudspeakers, so I don’t know what I am talking about. But as that never stopped me before . . . .

When I gave away my pedestrian 30+ year old stereo system to get something better, that meant giving up two ‘80’s vintage Jensen speakers for two Martin Logan towers (not the planars, the 60 XT’s). Everyone I know assumed that I wanted to blast the neighborhood with sound, but that was never my intention. I used to listen to loud music decades ago, but now I prefer low-to-medium volume and bought nicer speakers for the quality of sound, not the volume. When others here note that they prefer to listen at 80-85 dB, I only go that loud when I do housekeeping chores in the next room and want the music as “company”. When doing what others call “serious listening”, I turn the music down to maybe 50-60 dB, for what I call relaxing.

How I relate this to the OP’s question: My assumption is that very expensive loudspeakers would make the greatest difference at higher volume levels. That is where the speakers are being pushed more and where they would hopefully shine compared to lesser speakers. It would be nice to visit and listen to such high-end speakers, to hear what the fuss is about, I don’t think they would make as much difference at the low volumes I usually do my listening at.

And, I’m not a big fan of listening at the frequency extremes that high-end speakers can reproduce. I compare this to the vocal range of singers — people tend to thrill to the singers that can reach the highest notes, but that is not my priority. I would rather listen to a singer that can make beautiful sounds in a more-restricted frequency range than the singer that can pierce metal with the very high frequencies. It comes back to comfort for me, not setting records.

Another part of the equation is there seems to be a rather high jump in price of high end audio components.  Everything seems to cost quite a bit more nowaday.

The Thiel CS2.4 was only about 4.5K USD when it came out.  It can compete handily with the YG.  

Their top of the line CS3.7 was only 13K USD.  How prices have gotten out of whack!