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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.
128x128jimspov
meerzistar
232 posts
 
Solid 18K gold  http://www.cinenow.fr/articles/24710-shape-audios-solid-gold-speakers
ctsooner
2,104 posts
 
I think most would agree that you can get some great sound for under say 5k or 10k, but you can get better to much better sound if you can afford to. Bass....clean and true is what costs the most.  Once you start adding built in subs and carbon fiber or other exotic materials, plus the labor as well as the R&D, then the price goes up accordingly.  Many companies will just set a price point that is way more than the speaker is worth or costs to make just because they can. They will market the heck out of them until they get a cult following.  Then they just use that to market and grow their base.  Great business if you can get away with it and there are plenty of companies who do this.  I think the real test though are the ones who have been around for ages and ages and have a great rep for giving you more than you expect in whatever your price range is.  There are a handful out there still who continue to do this, even as they hand the keys over to their kids.  I personally love to support those companies be it speakers or electronics.  JMHO
truesound45
3 posts
 

 I believe the real difference in speakers is the crossover design, and the tweeter

 selection.

  A simple crossover design does not account for coils and capacitors putting the voltage out of phase with the current.

  A more accurate crossover will have many parts, like 10 to 20 parts.

 

ctsooner
2,104 posts
 
true, it depends on the speaker and it's design.  I asked Richard Vandersteen about this yesterday and he said that another reason a speaker can go from 600k to 100k is the amount sold.  If you have a speaker that you design and you will only be able to sell a handful, then you have to make up the R&D, overhead and marketing costs on fewer speakers, so the price will go up accordingly.  He had much more to say, but this was one of the big things I took away.

wattsperchannel
142 posts
 
I would have to say the single biggest determinant of speaker price is price the market will pay which maximizes the rate of return on the capital of the speakers builder.  If it is not, it should be. This does not necessarily have any correlation to R&D, distribution or material costs.
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