Great question, Mark. And humorously posed. Thanks for sharing. Stay a while.
I like chesseroo's response (typical). Since electronics can be both subjective and a status item, that industry is rife with cachet-priced products. So, I'd agree that, to a point, quality does not increase proportionally to expenditure. That is, for me *personally* the point of diminishing marginal returns is reached fairly rapidly relative to the overall range of prices for a given component type.
But, more on-topic, I DO think speakers are better now than they were historically, and that some manufacturers offer much better value than others. Consumer electronics is perhaps the only area of our lives where you continue to get better products each year for relatively the same or less cost.
My father-in-law offered a great example. Twenty years ago, he bought an IBM PC XT for his business. The system cost about $3,000. He recently replaced his computer with a premium model that cost ... $3,000. The capabilities of these machines differ like night and day, of course. For the same investment, the time value of technology has afforded him much greater value.
Why should speakers be any different? Surely, the economies of scale and advancements in materials and analysis have afforded the Physics Side of the listening equation some advancement over the last 20 years. For my own part, I've spent ~$750 on each of three sets of main speakers over that period (Klipsch, Polk and now the Axiom M60's). I considered each to be a good product and a good value when purchased. And the Axioms are, to my ear, clearly superior to their predecessors. I suspect that, given the similarity of our ages, we both spent a fair amount of time in hi-fi shops over the years. Though the comparisons are not apples-to-apples, my perception is that the listening experience continues to improve while the cost remains relatively flat.
Of course, the creative interpretation is undeniable. There are certainly some speakers costing many times their price that are both inferior and superior to Axioms. It reminds me of the old saw that "there will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself". I guess the point remains that spending more does not necessarily ensure a higher quality experience, especially in audio.
Now, I've got to go change out of my bathrobe. My co-workers are starting to giggle.
