> speakers, they also vary on those audible frequencies, but after you are past $150 per speaker you are only dealing with quality after very loud volumes.
This is simply not true, and you could determine that for yourself easily if you wanted to. There are many, many factors that affect how a loudspeaker sounds besides how loudly it's playing. $150 speakers are much better today than they were say 30 or 40 years ago, but they're still full of design compromises.
I'd say it's actually the other way around : a /very/ good speaker will generally sound good with lots of punch even a very low volume. A low end one will need to be at 50% capacity or something to start to give its best. Obviously the amp & preamp also play a big part here.
This is simply not true, and you could determine that for yourself easily if you wanted to. There are many, many factors that affect how a loudspeaker sounds besides how loudly it's playing. $150 speakers are much better today than they were say 30 or 40 years ago, but they're still full of design compromises.