The experience I've had, having owned many pairs of speakers (as I'm sure most here have), is that a well-engineered and great sounding loudspeaker can be obtained relatively affordably. Some examples are: Monitor Audio Silver, Wharfedale (certain models), Totem, B&W, Martin Logan (especially ESL), etc.
I've had my current speakers (Dynaudio Audience 82s) since 2004 and they've never disappointed me. At my system's best I had a Pass Labs X250.5 in front of my Dyn's, and I was stunned how well they played together.
That experience greatly impacted my perception of how much quality could be attained in speaker reproduction at $2500/pr, since the amp was 4x higher in cost than my speakers. Almost any audiophile I know would call that match-up a no-no; my experience, however, disagrees with the conventional wisdom. My Dyns truly got out of the way and let the openness, transparency, warmth, command, and finesse of the Pass amp come through effortlessly.
I guess my philosophy more than anything is system synergy, not price points, whether discussing speakers or anything else in the chain.
Current System:
Dynaudio Audience 82s
B&K Ref 50 and ST 125.2 amp
Cambridge Audio Dacmagic and Jolida FX Tube Dac
XBOX One for Blu-Ray
APC S10
I've had my current speakers (Dynaudio Audience 82s) since 2004 and they've never disappointed me. At my system's best I had a Pass Labs X250.5 in front of my Dyn's, and I was stunned how well they played together.
That experience greatly impacted my perception of how much quality could be attained in speaker reproduction at $2500/pr, since the amp was 4x higher in cost than my speakers. Almost any audiophile I know would call that match-up a no-no; my experience, however, disagrees with the conventional wisdom. My Dyns truly got out of the way and let the openness, transparency, warmth, command, and finesse of the Pass amp come through effortlessly.
I guess my philosophy more than anything is system synergy, not price points, whether discussing speakers or anything else in the chain.
Current System:
Dynaudio Audience 82s
B&K Ref 50 and ST 125.2 amp
Cambridge Audio Dacmagic and Jolida FX Tube Dac
XBOX One for Blu-Ray
APC S10