Usually lol. Not always
. You should come have a listen to these EMP e55ti' sometime. They'll make you go "what.the.hell.....wow" for their price (especially what I got them for on Black Friday!).
It's just the MSRP is suggested and a lot of these ID and smaller companies don't have things to pay like tons of employee's, bills for multiple facilities, tons of R&D (which is a bad thing and a good thing depending on how you look at it), etc. They have to recoup that money somehow ya know. Focal makes quality stuff though for sure. Never heard their home stuff, but I've hear various drivers in car setups (krx3, utopia's, ec and those were definitely good; the polyglass line...I don't know how I felt about those. Quick listen and not used with a focal tweeter)
I'm sure you'll love them. A guy on another forum has the e55ti's and had the 814v and center setup before his EMP's...loved those too. Said they sounded surprising similar. For their price it's a steal. They were my go to if I didn't like the EMP's when I received them
I used to own the Infinity P362, so I have no doubt the EMP sound great.
So the SQ is there.
But I was thinking beyond the SQ; IOW considering factors when SQ are equal. Some people are willing to pay more to have speakers made in USA, England, France, Denmark, etc. Some people are willing to pay more for more prestigious name brands or for better subjective perceived aesthetic or better speaker posts, etc. It is superficial, but human nature nonetheless.
Oh, regarding MSRP, sometimes they are the same as the actual purchased price, not just "suggested".
For example, B&W, KEF, Focal, Dynaudio dealers will tell you that these manufacturers are quite strict about their MSRP - they expect people to pay full MSRP. Dealers are warned of losing their speaker lines if they stray from MSRP.
When I was buying my Focal, I thought about getting the Solo6 Be. But I could not even find a single dealer that was willing to sell for less than MSRP.
When I was buying my KEF 201/2, our Edmond local KEF dealer would not sell below MSRP; he said he would lose the KEF line if KEF ever found out. Same with our local Edmond Revel dealer when I was buying the Salon2. Our local Edmond B&W dealer said the same.
So MSRP is not always "suggested"; they are being expected & demanded of dealers by some manufacturers.
