Riddle me this, riddle me that....ok now can someone try to explain that?

[Feanor]

Yep there are other companies that are far worse than this..Audio Note is a prime example.Being the AN shill that RGA is maybe he can give some examples of the different levels of the $ difference of the different levels AN charges for there speakers.

Never more true than with Audio Note. The price of a basic model goes up 2-3x while the design remains blatantly the same. Difference seem to be silver wires, higher grade capacitors, etc.. The extra cost to AN could hardly exceed $100 per pair but the price goes up exponentially.

[RGA]

Never more true than with Audio Note. The price of a basic model goes up 2-3x while the design remains blatantly the same. Difference seem to be silver wires, higher grade capacitors, etc.. The extra cost to AN could hardly exceed $100 per pair but the price goes up exponentially.

AN believes that parts quality is important to the sound of products and after LISTENING to several speakers in their given lines it is clear they are correct. And at the end of the day the consumer is given the choice to buy the <2K version of the E or a host of E's going all the way to the $99,000.00version. Of course it isn't WORTH $99,000.00 if you don't have $99,000.00 This amount to Bill Gates is like $100.00 MAYBE to people like us. And all AN needs to do is compare it to other speakers at around the same price. So gee you can look at the basic E as stripped down 100K speaker - like the Studio is a stripped down Signature if we follow the previous analogy.

Go to Soundhounds listen to the E/L and then the E/spe - the price difference is relatively small. The sound difference is not. The E/L is about $3kCdn listen to it against the Paradigm monitor 9 or 11 - then go from the E/L to the E/Spe(about $1k more or so) Go from the monitor 9 or 11 to the Studio 100 which is also about $1k more. They carry both lines you can hear em in four different rooms and you can set them up yourself if you don't trust them - I always check their connections and the positioning "fairness" used. Come back and tell me which is more noticeable as an "upgrade" to sound for your extra grand. Just because you can't SEE where the money has gone - by George you can HEAR where it has gone. If it takes more than a minute I'd be surprised.

Value, price, and cost are things for individuals to decide - no one forces you to buy the statement product of a company - and I'm not sure why if a company makes an expensive product they're bashed. If the expensive product is as good or better(or just comparable) to the other guy's expensive product then that's all that matters to me. It's nice to be able to buy the AN E/L which will have a house presentation to the AN E/Sogon. The B&W602 sounds nothing like Model Nautilus however.

[Feanor]

...
Value, price, and cost are things for individuals to decide - no one forces you to buy the statement product of a company - and I'm not sure why if a company makes an expensive product they're bashed. If the expensive product is as good or better(or just comparable) to the other guy's expensive product then that's all that matters to me. It's ...

Value is in the eyes of the purchaser, and if s/he is content to pay the difference in price for the difference in quality -- however small or large, what does it matter what it cost the vendor?

I'm not certainly not saying the the Signature isn't better than the Reference, nor that the more expensive ANs are better than the lower end models: I'm only saying you pay more and more to get less and less difference. And of all industries, high-end audio has worked the limit of diminishing returns better than any other I can think of.

By the way, I certainly would like to visit Soundhounds, and near that end of the country someday, I will. I'd also hear the Audio Note offerings, maybe in T.O., but I strongly suspect they are of a quite different character from the Magneplanars and other planars and ribbons designs that I favor.