10-02-15: Johnnyb53
[...]
Audiophiles try to get reproduced music to match live music as much as possible [...]
I would add a questionmark to that statement, followed with the reply: generally, no. Audiophilia seems the most interested in (re-)creating its very own thing, which is not necessarily (i.e.: rarely) getting at the signuature of live, acoustic sound, but more of a subjective need to refine micro rather than macro aspects; to each their own indeed.
And I guess that's just fine, yet still the void looms: how many speakers/setups are capable at emulating fairly closely the body, tone and physicality of a saxophone, a drumkit, a piano, violin, an ensemble, a full scale orchestra? Not many, I'd say, and I'm wondering whether many an audiophile are really interested in achieving this goal. For them to attain the fullness, ease and scale of real live music I'd say the size (and type) of speakers is one of the very determining factors, but letting ones speakers take up much space in the living-/listeningroom, certainly where the space is not dedicated solely for this purpose, is a rarity these days, and looking at the prices of larger speakers it would seem the monetary range of $40-50k+ has been patented for this segment - not exactly bait for popularity and widespread use.
So, why do big speakers need to be that expensive? They don't, but when manufacturers make small, standmounted speakers costing north of $15-20k (which is really nuts, if you ask me) it's easy to see why their larger siblings cost a small fortune. Because, everything matters, the saying goes, but not all equally, I'd add. Take a look at the upcoming topmodel from Tekton, a BIG speaker for a very fair price w/DSP option (and this is just an example; I have no affiliation with Tekton):
http://www.tektondesign.com/1812.html
Perhaps some would scoff at their rustic looks and the use of an 18" bass unit, but getting down to brass tacks (without having auditioned these) and letting sound rather than luxury looks reign supreme I don't see why they'd fail to do impress on par with items costing 10 times or more their price (how's that for a challenge, Mr. Fremer - care to review these and compare them to your Wilson's?). Perhaps you'd end up getting "only" 95-98% of what the comparatively sized, yet MUCH more expensive typical high-end alternatives can muster (they'd even exceed them in core areas), but at this price?
High-end audio in large part has become ridiculously overpriced, and whenever I've heard or read people claim this or that component being too cheap I've wondered why they didn't end up calling the others too expensive instead?