Comparison of "$100K+ Super Speakers" to "Real World" Top of the Line Models

[mav52]

Your analogy is not really sensible. The 911 is a mass produced automobile, I am absolutely sure more 911s are produced every year than all the $100K speakers on the market combined. Additionally, the 911 has lots of compromises in its design and build quality in order to remain reasonably priced (for instance, it is not 100% carbon fiber), whereas speakers produced at the $100K+ level are no compromise designs.

I think a more accurate analogy would be the $100K+ speaker to a F1 car... Now how much does the F1 car cost?

 

Well unless your a country or a huge business the following will give you some idea what it cost for F1. Get your wallet out and these are 2003 figures.

 

How much does it cost to build an f1 car? - Yahoo! Answers

[The Computer Audiophile]

The Magico Q7 is the best loudspeaker I've ever heard. I've heard nothing like it, not even the Magico Q5.

[Audio_ELF]

Well you have made a good point maybe an F1 is a better comparison. How about this 300 lbs of speaker (plus or minus), carbon fiber et al and a 3000 lbs (plus or minus) car?

Well, they say the Bugatti Veyron cost $400,000,000 to develop and with a planned 300 sales, they will never recoupe the production costs.

 

Though I would suspect a lot of the development would work down into the Audi R8 for example... Just like the top range speakers influence the lower speakers.

 

One thing I'm not sure: the very high end speaker comanies like Wilson and Magico - do they also do devleopment for lower end (more mainstream) brands?

 

Eloise

[The Computer Audiophile]

One thing I'm not sure: the very high end speaker comanies like Wilson and Magico - do they also do devleopment for lower end (more mainstream) brands?

 

Eloise

 

I don't believe either company does work on other brands.

 

I also believe Wilson is still using Focal drivers.

[DigiPete]

The Magico Q7 is the best loudspeaker I've ever heard. I've heard nothing like it, not even the Magico Q5.

 

I would kill to hear the Magico Q7's and Steinway Lyngdorf's Model D's i the same suitable listening room.

 

That would be the ultimate old school / new digital battle of the year!

Even if both are a bit out of my league, especially as I prefer surround.

[barrows]

Well, Wilson's top of the line technology does trickle down to their lower priced models. And sometimes they develop technology which also trickles up to the higher priced models. Considering the Sophi III is around $18K, that is quite affordable in the context of this discussion.

Wilson uses some drivers based around Focal units, but different (I think tweeters only though), also some Scan Speak based drivers. A lot of the talk from some manufacturers about proprietary drivers is not entirely accurate. That is, they often use a driver from a company like Scan Speak, keeping the motor assembly, but changing the cone, and calling it a their own driver... While no one else may have the same combination, the basket and motor assembly still comes from Scan Speak-not that there is anything wrong with that, as Scan Speak makes some incredible drivers. But the idea that companies like Magico and YG Acoustics make their own drivers, is not always entirely true.

Considering how good Scan Speak's drivers are, and how much knowledge they have in their data base of how to make outstanding drivers, and the years of experience they have, it would be ill advised for relatively new companies to not take advantgae of their experience.

[master]

Can a speaker cost as much to design, build and market as a option heavy Porsche 911?

 

If you consider a 911, there are a lot more parts. A lot more labor costs. A lot more marketing. There IS more of just about everything. Yet there are 100 + Speakers which cost just as much as a very high end car.

 

Now consider the margin on a speaker v. a 911. I would guess a speaker craftsman would only have to sell one or two flag-ship speakers to make his company profitable.

 

Thoughts?

 

Both serve difference uses. With a car its always about getting from point A to point B with the most luxury or the fastest. Speakers don't really cater to luxury or speed. They are primarily sold as devices that will accurately reproduce sound as if in a live setting. A good speaker does not shine or draw attention to itself (unlike a car)... it simply disappears. Somehow thanks to mass (or niche) marketing and considering audiophiles are willing to pay big bucks for any "perceived" improvement in SQ we have a lot of these luxury speaker brands promising the ultimate in terms of SQ. Never mind I have yet to come across one single speaker that does everything very well i.e. handle the highs, the mids, and the lows effectively and play all genres very well especially at a budget. I listen to everything from pop, reggae, trash metal to hip hop and I've not yet come across any one speaker that plays every genre to 100% satisfaction. It has always been doing with the best match and drawing a compromise somewhere... or else have different setups for each genre (for which my wife will kill me).

 

The Magico Q7 is the best loudspeaker I've ever heard. I've heard nothing like it, not even the Magico Q5.

 

Truly wonderful speaker... I've heard it and was besotted from the first song. Jamo R909 is another beauty though not in the same league or price range.

[esldude]

Have heard a number of speakers up to the $5-$10k range. Have heard only a handful above that. My best reference was some very well regarded $25k speakers. These in a very large room with the best of everything feeding them. I thought them probably about the best I had heard. I also thought the large room was very beneficial. Though among the best I had heard I didn't think they had an intrinsic huge jump in superiority over the better speakers under $10k. If you took away the higher sound level ability I didn't think them better otherwise.

 

Well in the same room those were replaced with some in the near $100k range. Those sounded so much superior to everything else I have heard in pretty much every regard that it seems some threshold was crossed.

 

Though in no way could one fully objectify such a thing, over the years, my best guess is to subjectively double how good a speaker sounds to you, you need to spend 16 times the money. A fourth power coefficient if you will.

 

I would have guessed that speakers above $50k perhaps were so good anything more was just guilding the lily. I don't think that now. I think better modeling, design and materials technology means at least the better of those megabuck speakers are continuing to improve. As speakers are the worst thing in audio at the playback end that is encouraging. Means we can get better stuff in the future. Though for me they simply are out of reach unless the techniques and materials do trickle down.