It comes from the part of their brain compensating for the lost cash. I love it when I read articles by audiophiles who refuse to do blind testing and say that the difference between two different components can't be measured (translation: it does not exist outside of their brain).

This is not to say that there aren't really awful $10k speakers that are quantifiably worse than most $1k speakers.

Back to the original topic: How on Earth is this thing useful when you travel? Does one bring an amp, a UPS, and a pair of bookshelf speakers on the aircraft?