Are Bowers and Wilkins speakers overpriced?


I see a lot of negative commentary on B&W. Why? Are they overpriced? Do they not sound as amazing as they look? Are they too “main stream”? - I love my 805 d3’s but curious why they get such a bad rep. 
paulgardner

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i know this is lower end but i bought a pr of 703s2’s for a second system and find them much more musical with the new continuum midrange driver vs the older kevlar driver. They were $3500(now 4k) and I think of them as sort of a value. It’s a well designed attractive speaker that’s a floor stand model. A prudent shopper can make a very nice system using them plus a b&w subwoofer. Very much worth a listen in this price range. I didn’t care too much for the previous versions. 
if you want to talk about egregious pricing take a shot at cables. in terms of cost of product vs retail price i think cables win the prize. One example i can easily think of is I have a pair of Wilson Yvettes(25k). A single 2.5m Odin 2 power cord lists for 24k. I strongly doubt that the power cord has the inherent manufacturing cost that the wilson speakers have. of course there are a million examples. i spend way too much on cables often thinking how mindless it is when i look at the cost of the things in my house. in one hand i have a cable and in the other a high end tv which cost less than the cable. mind boggling if you think about it. i think people like me are the root of the problem bc we still buy the uber expensive cables knowing that they are grossly overpriced. Consider that 1000 american dollars for a pair of cables is no longer considered anywhere near the top. no one to blame but myself... but i do love great cables. that’s the problem.