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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.
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Showing 1 response by swampwalker

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swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Lots of good information and analysis above.  One thing not mentioned is what are the actual street prices of the $$$ speakers?  Leaving aside "industry accommodation" pricing, what do real consumers actually pay for a $50K or $100K speaker?  I have no idea and I imagine it varies widely, but it would be interesting to know what the average discount is on these uber high-end products.  The only speaker I bought new in the last 20 years was obtained at a very substantial discount from list.  It was not in this price category but still, it didn't take any arm-twisting on my part. 

Of course, the most basic answer to the OP's question is:  "Price".
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