My understanding is that ONLY this speaker is getting a *significant* price increase come Jan 1 2015. Without a good explanation, my initial reaction is one of utter disappointment. I researched the cost of aluminum the last 5 years, and other than a slight peak in 2011, it has remained fairly constant, now back at 2010 levels; but of course, I am not sure about the specific type of aluminum they use. Is it the cost of driver manufacturing? The crossover? It could be typical accumulating cost-to-manufacture increases over the years, that have been absorbed for a while. While I can appreciate not putting out a marginal "Mark II" version with a corresponding price increase, is this really now a roughly $50K speaker the way other competing products questionably are???