Please give us an example that does not involve refurbished Apogees ...
To start with, price is a complex thing, and for what you said, you need an efficient market. So the search process needs to be efficient. Given the nature of the hobby, the search process is inefficient. How many old married guys with kids have the time to search? Rhapsody on one of his posts said his clients buy Ferrari, speakers etc - some search, some don't they have more important things to do such as family and work. But that itself means those who don't search cannot find the best price point. Bill and I have very similar tastes and literally one to one agreements when we listen together. He has zero time to travel, even locally in London to demo speakers. He can only do inhouse. No way is he going to find an ideal price point to tick all his boxes. He has accepted there will an inefficiency in the search process.
Unrelated point 2. What is price? A 100+ k speaker, how much does it actually cost on the street? A restored Apogee is quoted at street cost - 30k USD for Full Range, 80 - 100 if you want to buy Henk's Grands, which were the costliest speaker once at 85k (in inflation heard that today it would have been 350k). But at 30k street of FR, compared to less than 50k of the 100+k speaker, the Apogee does not have any costs embedded for being hauled to every hifi show, every reviewer, transport, logistics, marketing, distribution - none. At the same time, the price does not factor in local service and long term company guarantee. Price is for pure sonics. So, price is more complex than RRP. Not to mention that crossovers, crossover components, connectors, etc can be customized to the highest specs.
Point 3, similar to 1. All of us have a different research process. Look at Ron's amp search. Would that be your method? Would your method be his? Mine would differ from both of you. If you are ever a fly on the wall on conversations between Marc and me, we differ on everything - research process, audition style, music tastes, gear tastes. Once preference and tastes are established, the purchasing decision process itself differs between audiophiles. Some buy for the pride of ownership - "I want to have the biggest brand in da house". Some buy on "best deal process." Money is no problem as long as it is a great discount. Some buy for "arms length, ease of install process". Thing is, these differing buying behaviors create a further disconnect between what should the price be for what element of that decision is most important to you. Which of these various attributes do you think justifies the most premium - that itself will differ from what I think justifies the most premium.
Point 4. You bought the Wilson and the Vivaldi. Did you listen to the big Stenheim and the YG Sonja? Also the Lampi? I am not asking you which is better, just asking if you heard them. If not, you cannot establish your research for the price point was thorough. All you can establish is you were thorough by what you assume is the right way to do research (whatever that may be)
Point 5. Unrelated to the above, there are crossover points. For example, even if you were a fan of a particular brand, say Wilson or Logan, as you upgraded your way up the models, a point will come where the speaker even though more expensive will be too big for your room, and bring down the SQ. So unless an audiophile owns a Mike L or Marty type room, high probability that many others will affect their SQ adversely as they keep upgrading speakers
Point 6. Again, what is price and what is cost? AR has a price, but you can buy and sell AR used in the UK all day, so cost is virtually zero. It's only liquidity cost. So liquidity plays a big role factored into the RRP, if that is important.
Point 7. Examples, Apogee aside.
a. I have compared Audience (cheapest), Ansuz C (middle), and Odin (costliest) signal cables in the same system. The preference was Ansuz, Audience, Odin, in that order.
b. With cartridges, more than cost, it is which way do you sway - I prefer Ortofon A95, XV-1T, Lyra Etna type sounds, as well as Audio Technica ART-9, to Koetsu Coralstone type sounds.
c. Tenor 75, used price 6500, cheap unless you factor in driver replacement costs
- plus that you can take out the preamp and associated cables. Of course only if your choice is the right speaker.
d. Having horns will reduce room shape and treatment costs quite a bit as they are directive.
e. Lampi
I highlighted a thread by Shakti from the German forum today in the Analog section. Extremely detailed process, which helps eliminate inefficiencies in the search.
So, my final examples of systems are in my set up and recommended components list, but that aside, talking to audiophiles and how they have purchased, the market is just inefficient
