First, high SPL, which many car bass drivers have. We've all heard that, cars with lots of/large bass woffers that pump bass.
I did mean neither sheer SPL nor low distortion which both surely can be achieved by some affordable speakers even at lower frequencies. It is more about the groove, kicking beats, tight, precise bass, coherent timing over the whole lower band, if that makes sense. Such I have mostly experienced with bigger active, non-vented speaker concepts which are inevitably more expensive than $5k.
Is this characteristic common to all speakers above a certain price point?
Surely not. It is very rarely found in passive speakers or vented designs, if ever.
Is it due to design choices that are exclusive to projects over $10,000?
Would say: yes, as I have made the experience that fully active, closed-box concepts (or alike) with vast diaphragm area and lots of amplifier power are the common way to achieve this. And all of this inevitably costs more than 10 Grand.
Can they be found in some way in the measurements in a distinctive way compared to less expensive speakers?
Probably yes, but you have to take room interaction (and correction thereof) into account and do in-room measurements of things like group delay, waterfall plot and RT60 below 150Hz. Not really common to do that.
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