Almost a decade ago I picked up a pair of relatively inexpensive Sound Dynamics R606 floor-standing speakers. Using the same components from their high-end line (I believe Mirage was the high-end marketing name), these were the poor-man's version. I still have them today, and they are extraordinary. I have never, anywhere, heard better sounding speakers overall, and I've either purchased or auditioned a large number of dramatically more expensive brands and models, and I've tried to follow the advice by a lot of audiophile magazine. Still, though, the voicing and realism of the reproduction that comes from the R606 is just unparalleled - I watched a DVD with them as the fronts for the first time recently, and the realism was absolutely spooky.

Of course like all speakers they aren't perfect - they can get a bit muddy for percussion in the lower range, and they aren't really suited to loud "rock" style music. Yet for other music, particularly of the female vocal genre, they are exemplary.

The only really point here is that with speakers, you don't necessarily get what you pay for: You might get much more, or much less. The only real consideration of a speaker's performance is to actually audition it.