| The most expensive speakers in the world [message #69663] |
Sun, 02 October 2011 01:28  |
brian21
Messages: 59
Registered: January 2011
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Baron |
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I was thinking about how much I'd be willing to spend on speakers if I was rich, so I looked around online for the most expensive ones. I found a pair of speakers that go for $6,950,000. That's almost seven million bucks! They're made of solid gold, and only one pair was made. I thought that was pretty insane, I couldn't believe something like that even existed. If you had plenty of cash, how much would you ever consider spending on speakers?
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| Re: The most expensive speakers in the world [message #69678 is a reply to message #69677] |
Mon, 03 October 2011 09:26  |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Honestly, anything over about $20,000 is outrageous. The best drivers in the world can be purchased for under $1000. So even if you have an array of them, you're talking a few thousand bucks, tops. Most of the cost is in the cabinet - which is understandable. But even an exotic wood with hand-rubbed cabinet is just a few thousand bucks.
Truthfully, for about $3000 per cabinet, you can have what I think are the best speakers in the world. A full hifi system with uniform-directivity mains and multisubs can be built in the $20,000 range that is world-class, top-of-the-line. Anything more than that is just conspicuous consumption, which I don't say is "evil" or anything, but it isn't buying quality, it's buying bragging rights.
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| Re: The most expensive speakers in the world [message #69720 is a reply to message #69715] |
Wed, 05 October 2011 17:05 |
AudioFred
Messages: 377
Registered: May 2009
Location: Houston
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Illuminati (1st Degree) |
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I believe the entry point for a really good sounding mainstream high end speaker is about $1,000/pr. You can get a pair for less, but they will have some serious compromises. The point of diminishing returns seems to be about $10,000/pr. You could spend much more, but any well designed and fairly priced $10,000 pair will sound and look very nice.
"Fairly priced $10,000 pair" may seem like an oxymoron, but the typical mainstream speaker at that price point will have about $2,000 worth of parts, and that's what's needed for really excellent sound in an upscale enclosure. Selling a speaker whose materials cost $2K for $10K many seem excessive, but the manufacturer needs to cover all his overhead including wages, benefits, advertising, dealer markup, etc. I believe the best values are those offered by non-mainstream high end speaker manufacurers like Pi Speakers, Selah Audio, GR Research, AudioKinesis, etc.
Here's some eye candy http://most-expensive.net/speakers
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When buying speakers my best suggestion is that you absolutely must listen to them first. 
