People who frequent at my site know my constant intend to assess performance of audio before even thinking to make any changes:

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=432

Approaching from this mindset I always ask people who buy new expensive loudspeakers why they did it. I usually ask the owners of expensive loudspeakers presuming that if person pays $50K or $90K for a pair of loudspeakers then s/he give some considerations to the actions.  To my great surprise, talking to many audio people I practically NEVER have heard from new “expensive loudspeakers owners” any lucid purely audio rational. Do not take me wrong, I do not say that to buy $100K loudspeakers juts because you can do it is bad thing to do. It is better then use heroin, or to spend money for any imaginable luxuries of out lives. However, I was asking about the AUDIO MOTIVATIONS and here where many-many expensive loudspeakers owner from my view clearly slipped. In fact there are some response why the inexpensive speakers owners demonstrate more rational then the expansive one.

A few days back I visited the Audio Heritage site and discover that someone among then bout the Wilson Grand Slamms:

“Have heard … that one of our esteemed members sold his wif and kids to finance a purchase of some pristine Wilson Grand Slams. What is the punishment for such sacrilege ?? If its not too drastic , maybe he will make a personal confession ??? I guess he cud hang some JBL badges on them for atonement ??”

(My replsy might be found the page 5 (if they did not deleted it) in the thread http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=14773)

The guy, the owner, was right there, hes name was Jim Cambell. I found it worth to ask the new owner about his thinking:

“Jim, I very rarely visit this forum but reading this thread (juts a few posts) it picked my interests. Can you tell me what motivated you to get Grand Slamms? I really care less how much members of you family you put in pawnshop, keep it to impress others. What I am interested is your pure audio motivation and your rational for buying into the sonic capacity of Grand Slamms. Sure, should you be juts a reach fool who have some money to spend then who cares what you bought. But since you went for considerable actions to raise money for your buy I presume that there was “something” that motivated you. I am very far form the position to worship the Grand Slamms and at the same time a am very far from considering them as a peace of audio crap. My question is more not about the Grand Slamms specifically but about the reasoning and motivations that some people use when they get for instance the 50K audio components. Sure you pay a lot of money but do you get any reasonable sonic compensation by the result of you actions? Could you elaborate about your thoughts?”

Unfortunately Jim Cambell turned out to be a typical audio-idiot, juts empty giggling Moron but it is not really about him. Mr. Cambell was just a laboratory rat, it turned out to be a crappy rat, but the study is way wider then the primitive Mr. Cambell.

So, did anyone pay for loudspeakers without had in your mind a well formed AUDIO rational for doing it? If you did not then you should.  If you do not have these hobbit – to identify the audio rational then you should develop it… Without it you juts act in according with the Pavlovian Reflexes reacting to your own Moronity…