It seems like for every review of budget or value oriented speakers, the review will state, in more or fewer words, that the speakers perform above their price point. And if the speakers are competently designed and also fall into the value category, it's almost a certainty. Heck, this sort of phrasing also creeps up when you reach past the budget/value camp - "it competes with speakers 2-3 times its price" is one I hear often.
My point of contention is that if most of these good budget speakers perform above its price point, then it actually 'doesn't' perform past its price point because many of its competitors have the same level of performance in a similar pricing bracket. The floor has effectively been raised. Does anyone have any examples of budget speakers that have performance that you would expect from its low price?
I think a large part of this is that reviewers are hesitant to give out bad reviews for whatever reason. The new norm should be "these speakers perform well and as its price indicates" and anything in its price range that doesn't measure up should bluntly be labeled a poor performing speaker for the money.
After all, if everything performs "above its price range" then nothing really does. Certainly there are true, outstanding values to be had, but these speakers should define performance for their price range and other speakers that can't meet the new performance standards should be given poor reviews.
What do you think?
My point of contention is that if most of these good budget speakers perform above its price point, then it actually 'doesn't' perform past its price point because many of its competitors have the same level of performance in a similar pricing bracket. The floor has effectively been raised. Does anyone have any examples of budget speakers that have performance that you would expect from its low price?
I think a large part of this is that reviewers are hesitant to give out bad reviews for whatever reason. The new norm should be "these speakers perform well and as its price indicates" and anything in its price range that doesn't measure up should bluntly be labeled a poor performing speaker for the money.
After all, if everything performs "above its price range" then nothing really does. Certainly there are true, outstanding values to be had, but these speakers should define performance for their price range and other speakers that can't meet the new performance standards should be given poor reviews.
What do you think?