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What's your vote for where the Law of Diminishing returns starts for tower speakers?

Where do you think the Law of Diminishing Returns starts for tower speakers?

  • under $1000 (per pair)

    Votes: 12 7.5%
  • $1001 to $2000 (per pair)

    Votes: 35 22.0%
  • $2001 to $3000 (per pair)

    Votes: 25 15.7%
  • $3001 to $5000 (per pair)

    Votes: 27 17.0%
  • $5001 and up (per pair)

    Votes: 60 37.7%

  • Total voters
    159

2Sunny

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Joined
Mar 14, 2025
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Location
Westchester, NY
I realize this is an oft discussed topic, but I've never seen a poll so I'm curious. If you vote I'd love to hear what speaker you're thinking of.

I've never listened to a pair myself, but based on my watching reviews online I think I need to find a pair of these to listen to as they would have my vote today :D

Q Acoustics 3050i

 
Don't think that this particular reviewer is very popular on ASR :facepalm:.

Agree with @Matt_Holland - but would also add mid-point $15K.

Also will be very difficult to agree at which point the roll-off starts. Probably way before the point where you get really little for incremental huge price increases. I personally would never spend more than $12K for pair of Revel 328s (aka sale/deal price) as they are endgame passive speakers.

Finally, there are active and passive speakers, so I assume we are talking passive here - as active tend to cost quite a bit more (if not towers, then monitor+sub unit).
 
Diminishing return based on price will move about with your personal level of affluence, this isn't going to prove much. A discussion on objective diminishing returns would be interesting, and objective.
 
Diminished Returns for Output, Bass extension, and quality of construction starts to set in much later general sound quality (on and off axis).

Im sure a great sounding small floor stander is available cheap enough, if you want very high spl, real bass, and furniture grade cabinets you are still going to have to spend a lot.
 
Diminishing returns can kick in rather quickly, but it really depends on your specific needs, expectations, and listening environment. And then how do you quantify it? What makes a given speaker twice as good as another? 50% better? 10% better? This is virtually impossible to answer in any objective fashion. Even the Harman "preference score", which was formulated out of decades of exhaustive research, is flawed to the point that its use is cautioned against by the people who created it.

I'd say the more practical question to ask is what your requirements are, and then you can go forth and research the cost of speakers that meet them. This could result in $200 or $2000 or $5000 or $10,000 speakers, etc. And then consider the possibility that a specific $2000 speaker may sound virtually identical to a $5000 speaker when both are played at moderate volumes, but the $5000 speaker has the ability to get twice as loud. If you don't need the additional volume, you've already hit a hard diminished return after $2000. But if you do require its more robust SPL abilities, the $5000 speaker may very well be worth the expense.

In other words, there's no real answer to this question. It always depends.
 
It's difficult to give such a general answer. It depends very much on the individual case.

If I develop the speakers myself, install the best Hypex plate amp, buy the drivers, have the baffle milled and veneer and glue the cabinet myself, I'm completely satisfied at around 10,000 euros.

These are then ranges that are in the 30,000 euro to open end range for loudspeakers from established companies.
 
I've posted these pics on other threads, apologies for redundancy, but captures my personal "diminishing returns" epiphany.

I had the Salon2, F208 & F206 in the same room, at the same time to compare. It was an insightful, though subjective experience. In short, there were no surprises as to good, better, best, the Salon2's were everything that they are said to be. However, the cost of diminishing returns was eye opening. I paid $12k for the Salons, $2500 for the 208's and $1200 for the 206's, all used. I kept the 206's for the great sound and superior value and sold the others. They are the mains in both my 2 channel and HT setups. I put the saved funds into long term T Bonds.

1742480598492.png
 
40% think it's at two grand?

If only.
 
I posit that diminishing returns start at the price point of the cheapest available tower speaker, well below $1000. Especially if you allow EQ.

Even the cheapest tower speaker is going to provide a huge listening improvement compared to no speaker. The incremental gain from the next most expensive speaker is going to be tiny in comparison :)
 
I'll take these two, good speakers by the way, as an example. Let me explain why they are as an example.

First: HECO Aurora 1000
$799/each
main_ed062b1d.jpg

Tests and measurements on HECO Aurora 1000:

Then:
Monitor Audio Silver 500 7g
$3,400.00 pair
ma_silver_500_front_ash.jpg



Links with tests and measurements on Monitor Audio Silver 500 7g:

Here's where it gets interesting. Both speakers have dual 8 inch bass drivers in their three-way design. Between them they have about the same sensitivity and power handling. Monitor Audio Silver 500 7g measures a bit better than HECO Aurora 1000 BUT is it worth double the price? Maybe it is for Jane but not for Joe.

Maybe Joe thinks diminishing returns kicks in up there with what a pair of speakers like HECO Aurora 1000 for $799/each costs/perform. For Jane, it is instead Monitor Audio Silver 500 7g for $3,400.00 pair where this diminishing returns starts to kicks in.
 
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I'm aware of those speakers but never had a listen to them since, for some reason I've never understood, JBL don't want to sell anything in the UK.

They do look good for the money.

Obviously cannot hear every speaker out there and we all have our own idea of what a diminished return is.
 
Revel F208 is just under €6000 a pair, so voted for the last option.
 
Last months Im dealing with reconstruction and furniture of my sister apartament - prices , (especially for qualified work) are so high, that I cant imagine a well executed cabinet with top-notch finish to cost less than 1k -minimum. So for a great floorstanders starting point of the production cost is around 2.5k euro, then come drivers,crossovers ..etc.
 
we all have our own idea of what a diminished return is.

Unfortunately that could be problem, when in fact it might not be. The law of diminishing marginal returns is quite specific - some here have alluded to it.

Spend a bit (x%) more on a single measurable input to a tower speaker, does the tower speaker measure x% better? If so, the point of diminishing marginal returns has not been met. If it measures less than x% better, then we have diminishing returns.

The problem is always that in something complex (?) like a tower speaker there are a clearly a multitude of inputs to measure, together with their interdependencies.
 
Very personalized in my opinion. For me JBL 4329P I got for $3500. Of course that's including amps, dac, network . I've had speakers costing 4x as much I didn't really like 4x as much. To each his own.
 
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