Aside from a few notable exceptions, it seems that the price of a speaker within a system rises geometrically as the speaker approaches full range. For example, you can get really detailed, musical monitors and bookshelf speakers for a relatively affordable price (a few thousand). However, as the bass driver is added, the price shoots up within the same line of speakers. As the bass driver gets bigger and the speaker approaches the 20hz in its bottom octave, the price doubles with each model as it gets you closer to that bottom octave.
Is there a good reason for this? Is bass reproduction so difficult that it justifies such huge price increases or is it just marketing and adding bass drivers is used as the most visible difference in speaker models to justify added costs?
Aside from a few notable exceptions, it seems that the price of a speaker within a system rises geometrically as the speaker approaches full range. For example, you can get really detailed, musical monitors and bookshelf speakers for a relatively affordable price (a few thousand). However, as the bass driver is added, the price shoots up within the same line of speakers. As the bass driver gets bigger and the speaker approaches the 20hz in its bottom octave, the price doubles with each model as it gets you closer to that bottom octave.
Is there a good reason for this? Is bass reproduction so difficult that it justifies such huge price increases or is it just marketing and adding bass drivers is used as the most visible difference in speaker models to justify added costs?