Before I say any of this let me make two things clear. 1) Money does not correspond 1:1 to quality. There are so many factors that go into this: manufacturing location, marketing, direct vs retail, perceived value, etc. 2) Diminishing returns are true of just about everything.

Have you ever heard people say you should spend the majority of your budget on speakers? The reason is that no matter how good your electronics are if the speakers can’t reproduce the difference then it doesn’t matter. The 800fs are excellent speakers but they are less than the cost of the MK5. It is possible that the 800fs simply can’t reveal the difference. To me the 800fs are at the top of the consumer market verging on audiophile. These types of speakers are designed like most consumer speakers. They sound pretty good with most gear so that consumers think “wow these sound good I wonder what the next step up sounds like”? One of the giveaways is the frequency response. The 800fs have a deeper frequency response than the 80fs which are the next step up in the Paradigm range. Why would the cheaper speakers have a deeper response? Because the average consumer associates good sound with deep bass. The problem is there is always a tradeoffs with physics. You only have so much surface area moving air. You can either have more low end or more accurate low end (I know this is an oversimplification but generally true). Audiophile speakers value accuracy over exaggerated sound meant to impress on first listen.

I think my favorite part of this photo is that you have an entire wall of McIntosh electronics but not their speakers.

They had a bunch of mild hits in the UK. Their biggest song in the US was It’s My Life which was a bigger hit for No Doubt when they covered it. The wild thing is that the album Spirit of Eden made it all the way to #19 on the album charts in the UK.

I have a set of Boston Acoustics A100s with a different set of binding posts on each speaker. One is a screw post and one is spring clip. I don’t know which was the original connection but they sound great and are a totally worthwhile speaker.

While it is a very light rock album, Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden is unbelievable but that is more post-rock than rock.

Dio’s Holy Diver is pretty good but it can still rip your head off if you have bright speakers.

I just tend to reserve heavier rock tracks for my car that scoops out a lot of the offending high-mids.

I used to be an audio engineer and recording rock music is an odd thing. Think about it for a second. A rock guitar rig typically has 2X12" speakers and sometimes four or more. Not only does that amp play really loudly but it also pressurizes a room (more so with bass guitar). Then you have rock drummers which can produce peaks of 130 db. On the recording side you have transducers (microphones) that have, on the large side, 1" diaphragms which are attempting to capture all that sound. Trying to convince a rock guitarist to play on a much smaller amp is not often easy, but usually results in a better recorded sound. To control all of this sound you have to use some dynamic range compression and EQ. Getting all of these elements to balance, have fullness, and dynamics is really difficult, which is why really well recorded rock records always blow my mind.