Q: What am I paying for when the price range goes from four to five to six figures?

You can listen to music through a tabletop radio and watch a movie using the audio generated by just the television speakers themselves...if you don't care all that much about sound quality.

Then you can step up to a pair of speakers that costs hundreds of dollars. Or thousands. Or tens of thousands. Audio can be just as dramatic as video in an entertainment system and perhaps more important for music enthusiasts. The amount of money you invest in speakers can be virtually limitless, but what many people ask is, exactly what are they paying for when the price range goes from four to five to six figures?

Typically, the higher price buys much more research into new materials and techniques for manufacturing, and it affords companies the possibility to invest in better or new manufacturing capabilities necessary to achieve tighter tolerances. Also, higher prices allow for greater reject rates of supplied parts, which ensure more consistency from speaker to speaker.