No, I said "the aesthetics" not aesthetics in general. Meaning if you don't value the aesthetics, haptics and UX of the B&O speakers in question. It's immaterial that you may be interested in aesthetics in a general sense. You stated that you place a negative value on the aesthetics of B&O speakers (you didn't mention haptics or UX iirc). With that your value declaration makes some sense. But the calculus for others in this thread who value these things won't match.
As to the contribution of sound quality, we have anecdotes of your sighted listening in unspecified rooms over an unspecified timeframe. No mention of A/B comparison even. Given your sighted response ("hideously distasteful" etc) no-one would rule out negative sighted bias. So you may confidently include them in your own value calculation, but no-one else can. What "is not merely opinion" really is. Even relating measured sonics to price in % terms is an unlikely equation. You haven't, for example, stated which $825/pair Genelecs you are comparing the Beolab 28 to.
I don’t know where you’re getting this $825 figure. I said I find my $8k/pair Genelec 8351B to sound much better than the $80k/pair Beolab 90, at 1/10th the price.
As for how I concluded in the Beolab’s good but unexceptional (vs Genelec) subjective performance? Like everyone else here, it’s from subjective listening. So my opinion is no more or less valuable there than yours. You don’t have to trust my opinion any more than I have to trust yours.
But what is fact is that the Beolab 90 cost $80k/pair with relatively little objective data to back it up. What can it do that a set of Genelec 8361A’s for a fraction of price can’t?
The burden of proof is not on me to demonstrate whether or not the $80k Beolab 90 is absurdly overpriced (not counting aesthetically motivated money-disposal). That lies on the manufacturer. Where are the measurements? Genelec publishes them, and we have high quality third party measurements from several other sources now as well. If they exist for the Beolab 90, they’re hard to find because the only ones I see are of useless resolution and test conditions.
You can take or leave my subjective listening opinion, just like I can take or leave yours. That’s fine. But what remains is that makers of these absurdly expensive speakers still do not publish measurements, while some more affordable ones do.
It’s no surprise why, I suppose: B&O doesn’t necessarily even want the approval of audiophiles, as much as they want to promote a brand image of prestigious luxury and eclectic aesthetic. And so long as that works for them, that’s fine. But I do not like that business model, or the kind of products it often yields.
Disagree? Prove me wrong: Let’s see the measurements and the blind tests. Until then, it’s just subjective opinion vs opinion. And you should know that is going to lead exactly to nowhere.