Why the world's best loudspeakers are expensive?

[goodyet]

Here is BBC's take on the price of top loudspeakers BBC - Future - Why are the worlds best loudspeakers so expensive?

 

[Audio_Freek]

The article could be renamed as "Why Loudspeakers so Expensive"

When it comes to Speakers We all know the Driver,Cabinet,Xovers cost much,But the Design (Petent) for the Cabinet Design and materiel used , Materiel used for Drivers,Tweeters,Brand value,Hype given to the Brand value also takes equal cost in the MRP for the Hi end speakers.

From my experience Audio Setup is like Eco systems, It needs everything from the Proper Acoustic tested room,Source, Player\Streamer ,Amps,Cable to Speakers. So any fault in any of this chain, then there is no use having the best speaker in your Home,Since you might not get the feel what is been Advertised.

Paper,Aluminum, Silk,Titanium, Beryllium and now Diamond ,Still the Research is On to find which metal gives the flawless response and reduce the risk of Burnout in Tweeter and its applied for the Drivers too.

 

[Ravindra Desai]

The article could be renamed as "Why Loudspeakers so Expensive"
From my experience Audio Setup is like Eco systems, It needs everything from the Proper Acoustic tested room,Source, Player\Streamer ,Amps,Cable to Speakers. So any fault in any of this chain, then there is no use having the best speaker in your Home,Since you might not get the feel what is been Advertised.

I could not agree more with you on this! Nicely put and in simple words.

I would like to add something from a technical stand point:

Almost all amplifier designs DO NOT treat a loud speaker as an impedance load. They treat a loudspeaker as a resistive load.
Speaker impedance of a 4E speaker can vary from 3E to 16E !!
Speaker impedance of a 8E speaker can vary from 6E to 32E !!

Kindly take a look at the impedance curve of a loudspeaker. It is low in the midrange (around 800Hz to 2K) and rises on either side.
So with most amplifiers, a simple Ahuja 12" full-range will sound like crap.
But if you work around the impedance such that output POWER (not voltage) is proportional to input signal only, then the Ahuja will sit along side Tannoy Prestige Gold also.

Coming back to the topic in hand, you can do one of the two to get amazing sound:
1. Choose your electronics which will deliver POWER (not voltage) proportional to input signal and use any decent speakers
2. Choose any electronics and choose speakers with as flat impedance curve as possible and design its enclosures strictly as per TS parameters.

Regards,

Ravindra.