Preference for speakers that are half the price. Has this ever happened to you?

All of this stuff sounds different, and the sonic characters of competing models don’t necessarily "converge" towards similarity as you move price up. In fact, sometimes it seems like the opposite effect - higher end models can display more "personality" of whatever the designer / brand intended. 

We also have difference preferences, and speakers effect different room interactions. 

Higher prices implies higher budget, which allows more material, more sophisticated materials, and more complex designs. Sometimes those things lead to better sound, and sometimes they don’t.

If you liked the smaller speaker in this case, then maybe it’s part of a pattern where you prefer a more "coherent" sound (point source, panel, or line array). In that case, increasingly large boxes with multiple drivers are probably not the right pursuit vector. Or maybe it was something else entirely :) Sometimes the wiring in a system or crossover is even wrong!

On the other side you’ll have the ASR / flat-measurements folks say this happens (different sound) because it’s all produced distortion in varying types and amounts. And there’s truth to that. But the problem is that most of the "measures flat" gear they love sounds awful to me. 

And to answer the question directly - yes I have sometimes preferred the lower model in a speaker line to a higher model. Pretty much any modern 12" Tannoy, I’ve preferred the lower 10" model to it. But then I like some of the 15" models above that. Don’t know why! Also, I have yet to have a really great listening experience with one of those monstrous huge box, multi-driver, > $100K super speakers from the likes of Focal / Von Schweikert / Wilson / Acora etc. I've had better experiences with the smaller models in each of those brands. 

It happens all the time and has for years.  B&W 802 series sound better than 801 series except in very large rooms especially when 2 subs are added and properly positioned.  That is just one example.  A lot of this has to do with the subs of course.  It is often a mistake to over buy and wind up with speakers that are just too big for the space.  Dealers are the worst offenders, but they want to display their best and have to work within the confines of available floor space so I can’t really blame them.  Years ago I worked for a McIntosh dealer and when the first speakers were introduced we could never get their biggest and best ML4C to sound as good as their smaller ML2C or actually even their bookshelf ML1C.  The problem wasn’t the speakers, it was the room.  Later when Magneplanar introduced their IV-D it was very tricky to get them to sound right because they needed a lot more space than any of their other speakers.  We lost sales because of customer disappointment do to nothing more than that.

Assuming all variables are the same, including the same music, room, loudness, etc....,  I have found when listening to towers like you are, I tend to prefer more "volume filling" speakers over "higher detail".  I believe the speaker manufactures favor more detail as the price goes up, and sometimes this does not go well with our expectation regarding "filling the room" or "thick" vs "thin", etc...   For example, I like towers with big bass and if I do not hear that, then, the speaker goes down on my list.  Speaker synergy is also something we hear, and if a speaker favors highs, mids, or bass depending on our expectation we may or may not prefer that.  

The one thing I would caution any new buyer is that sometimes speakers that sound very detailed in the store after 2 minutes sound harsh and difficult to listen to after an hour.  While you should please your ears, be aware that this trips us all up. 

Thank you very much for your feedback and experiences, which help me see things more clearly.

I thought it was a unique opportunity to buy the best Sonus faber speakers at a “more reasonable” price (we're talking about speakers with a list price of $160,000...). Maybe they're not right for me after all. Or maybe I'll ask to listen to them a second time to be sure.

In any case, I really appreciate getting all these responses so quickly. Thank you again.

If anyone else has any other experiences to share, I'd love to read them (and even better if you've already heard the Aida 2...).