Neodymium is pricey stuff. I have two tiny neodymium magnets that I took out of a hard drive that I freak people at work out with. They are about 1/2 wide and an inch long, but only 1/32 thick. I hand them to people and tell to see if they can pull them apart, without sliding them off. No one has accomplished this yet. Yep, it does get a bit boring at work sometimes . . .
The loss of weight is primarily what you are paying for. I have JBL 2 drivers with neodymium, Alnico 5, and ferrite magnets. The Alnico and ferrite ones weight @ 30 pounds each. The neodymium drivers weigh 10 pounds each. That is a significant difference. Your back will thank you, regardless of how your pocketbook will view you. The sound is the same from all of these (IMO). All have the same wattage ratings and frequency range, and all use the same titanium diaphragns.
However, as with Alnico, but a bit worse (From what I have read), neodymium is more susceptible to loss of gauss from being jarred, heated up, and loss over time than ferrite magnets are. You can always have them remagnetized if you have a reconing shop around, but they must be removed and strapped down on a table to do this, as the remagnetizing is so strong it makes speakers jump around. As a business expense for touring, this does not matter much, as the speakers will probably be trashed or blown before they ever lose enough gauss to matter.
The neodymium speaker I have checked out usually handle a bit less watts, but have a slightly extended low-end compared to their company's ferrite models. They usually cost about $100 to $200 more than comparible models from the same company (I generally only look at kind of high-end stuff, so . . .). OK, I'm done yakking.
