Even tho JBL buys their speakers in lots of a million vs us just buying one we still get a much better deal doing it ourselves because even tho the major companies get their stuff alot closer to cost there is still a minimum cost to create the stuff they're buying. Then they have to buy the stuff, then they have to pay their employees to build them, they have to pay their employees insurance, they have to pay workmans comp, they have to pay for a big facility, they have to pay for the utilities, lots and lots of eqiupment. So their cost, while much lower per component is still very substantial, then they have to sell them to a reseller for nice fat profit, if they dont then why would they be doing it. Then that reseller has to sell them to us for a nice fat profit. And they want to make every possible cent they can in profit so they cut costs, and cheap out everywhere they can. Unless you buy really expensive gear, then they're still cheaping way out, you're just paying so much that you still get good product despite the manufacturer still having cheaped out.
Don't belive me, just take any driver out of, or take apart any commercial speaker you can and look around inside. Typically the crossovers are minimal at best and the boxes, despite looking nice on the outside typically have no bracing and are made out of 1/2" chip board, not even mdf.
I looked inside the surrounds for a cheap $200 home theater in a box, the whole speaker was made out of molded plastic with no corssover at all, nothing on the woofer and 1 cap on the tweet and that was it. I looked inside of a set of 3 way floor standing galaxys, no crossover components on the woofer at all, and only 1 inductor and 1 cap on the mid and tweet, the box was made of chip board and had zero bracing. And I looked inside of a set of $800 floor standing Klipsch 3 ways, still no bracing, basic cross over, sub standard box material and the port was questionable at best. It was about 3" around but less than 1" long, I'm not sure it even qualified as a port, it was really more like a hole. I can't imagine how it would help the sound at all. Sealing the box or putting a real port on the thing would probably make it sound better... Anyways, I'm rambling, even tho the major companies get all the hardware for low cost their cost is still substantial and then the finished product has to be sold once or twice for a substantial mark up usually at least 50% if not much more. Once we buy the componenets the buck stops there, the labor is all absorbed by us, and we don't have to pay anyone insurance, workman's comp, we don't have to pay for an exec's bonus. We don't have to pay for R&D and we don't have to please the share holders.