The price is Denon‑negotiable.

You get what you pay for. But the relationship between cost and quality isn’t a steady diagonal line. When you step up from the cheap stuff to the “good enough” stuff, the extra utility or pleasure you get for your money is pretty huge. Beyond that, you pay more for diminishing returns in increased quality.

It’s probably worth it to pay twice as much for a “good enough” car than for a junker. Is it worth it to pay twice as much again for a really nice car? Will it really be twice as good, whatever that means?

Only if those extras disproportionately matter to you. Nobody wants life to be just “good enough”. We all have those things that matter enough for us to pay for diminishing returns in quality. Someone might not pay for an artisan burger if they can get a cheap fast-food burger, but will drop a bundle on basketball tickets that are four feet closer to the action than the cheaper seats across the aisle. Call it “fussy money”, and we all spend it on something.

WTF are we babbling about? Let’s take, to choose something at random, oh, Bluetooth speakers. If all you’re looking for is something to play wireless streaming audio, you should settle for something like those mediocre Bluetooth speakers we sold the other day. For $4.50 each, they do the job. Nothing less and certainly nothing more.

Is today’s Denon Bluetooth speaker twenty times better? Only to the person who wants a bookshelf or tabletop speaker that sounds freaking fantastic. And gets really loud. And pairs really easily. And is made by a real audio company. And even looks decent. If getting good sound from your phone, tablet, or iPod is worth money to you, this Denon will be worth twenty of those mediocre speakers.

You’re going to spend “fussy money” on something. If that’s luxury socks or 180-gram vinyl or Italian lipstick or 3D IMAX movie tickets instead of Bluetooth audio, you should settle for those mediocre speakers we sold. They’ll be good enough. And sometimes, “good enough” is good enough.