I know the audio industry 'can' build a bad speaker, it just seems that it would almost have to be intentional and more as a marketing tactic. I used to rebuild electric motors. The difference between a great motor and a not so great one, was often pocket change in a singular sense, but millions of dollars production wise. But I could upgrade the components myself and turn it into a great motor for less than what they paid for it new.
At some point, the profit margins become ridiculous. With the technology available, say, a thousand dollars from a mass production op ought to be able to build superior products. I know there is more to it but is things I think about when I buy things, or, makes it more difficult for me to believe trends. And then you see an end of year, or "closeout" sale that exposes the more realistic value, provided the hype from the buyers doesn't keep it expensive.
Flashlights are a good example. Some flashlights cost thousands of dollars to those who will pay it. Often times, you could buy the same thing for a fraction of the cost that functions exactly the same.
If you think the closeout price reflects "the more realistic value", you're confusing that with cost or price- cost and price are qualitative, value is perceived.
You haven't considered several factors in pricing goods-
-Depending on the scale of manufacture, you'll need to deal with environmental regulation. Some materials used for wood finishing can't be used in all locations and if you really want to use something like nitrocellulose lacquer and some solvents, you need to spend a lot of money for equipment used to recover the evaporating volatiles.
-Testing components to ensure they meet spec and returning those that don't
-Design/test/redesign/re-test/re-design, etc- you can model an electro-mechanical device, but these aren't just making something turn, the drivers in a speaker system are interacting with the room and the final evaluation of the results of the conversion from electrical to mechanical energy isn't objective, it's
subjective.
-Packaging. If you're not delivering them, you need to protect them.
-Cost of everything used for the design, including the computer(s), testing mic(s), cabling, software, the design/testing facility, your time as the designer/tester/builder of prototypes, utilities, tools/machinery, materials, parts, etc
-If you actually decide to build the product for sale, how many will you build? The cost of goods used is based on quantity and you'll be at the mercy of the driver manufactures because they can and do discontinue products. Are these drivers 'off the shelf, or custom-made? If the latter, get ready for costs that you aren't prepared for.
-Back stock, for warranty coverage. If you don't offer a warranty, you won't sell many and if you replace components with something that doesn't match WRT specs and performance, get ready for at least one lawsuit. A typical length of time for product support is five years- if you really want to make a go of this, you need to state the warranty and if people are going to take you seriously, the warranty needs to have some value for them. Or, you could just be a "Whatever happened to....?" brand after a couple of years.
-Legal council. For just about every aspect of your documentation and support.
-Who accounts for the cost of the time/materials and everything else that goes into this endeavor? They're not going to do it without being paid.
-Who will sell your products? If you will travel with them, include this cost.
-Insurance- if you think you can employ people and not have multiple types of insurance, guess again.
-FICA (includes Social Security). Employers pay half, the employees pay half, unless the government gives employees a reprieve, like what happened when the economy tanked. Did the employers get this reprieve? No, they still had to pay the whole 15.3% of wages for this.
-Your own administrative time
If you do everything yourself and don't recover the cost for everything and every minute of your time, you're talking about a hobby, not a sound business model.
You rebuild/improve motors- have you considered doing that on a large(r) scale?
Profit comes at each step in the speaker's journey from factory to customer- how long does a dealer have them in stock? The market can be very fickle- what sold well last month may not sell this month and keeping inventory costs money for a dealer OR manufacturer. Profit isn't a dirty word- do you save money from working? No difference.