$90,000 PC?

I don't care, has nothing to do with me.

The high price is the bait, when they tell you, "We also have a cable at one third of that price" And you can cleary see that it's a bargain, in comparison you are actually saving $60.000! Then make the deal. Going home to tell the wife, "look, today we saved $60,000"

PT Barnam, could not tell the differance between right and wrong.

IAN.

Have any idea how much the cord cost for the recording equipment used to record your source material?

I find comments regarding ridiculously priced equipment boring and silly. And the victim is?

I also find it equally silly to mention homeless people as yet an additional reason to call such expenditures obscene. 

But, but, "in Nordic mythology, Ansuz is the rune associated with the Nordic god Odin, which translates into “communication through the god of wind”. It tells a story about wisdom, clarity, and truth!" Yeah, right ;-)

Some folks would argue that, in a time when you can’t drive into town without driving by tent cities and rows of decrepit RVs, a $90K power cord (that looks like it came out of a Shenzen dumpster, to boot) is obscene.

@viridian 94k CAD is $67788.30 USD. So it’s $3788 savings to buy in US. Yes I’m being silly like this whole “conversion.” 

64K is the medium down payment on a house in the US. So theres that.  5.4 of these gold cords equals the mean house price in the US. 5.85 cords equals the average cost of raising a child from 0-18 years, in the US. 

I am 1.07812 cords old but often act 1/5000th of a cord. 

Commenting / asking OP "$90,000 power cord by ASUNZ”..

…and the problem is? 

The first link is to a Canadian retailer. The price is in Canadian dollars, presumably to make the number all the more outrageous. The second ad is in the US in, wait for it, US dollars. Do the currency conversion and Shazam they are roughly the same price.

Price drop to $64000. Please relax...maybe listen to some music?

On one of his car videos, Jay Leno did a short discussion about one of his cars, one of the uber expensive European brands, and the insistence of the builder that their branded synthetic oil at $90 per quart had to be used exclusively in their engine. Jay made the obvious statement that, considering his collection, he could certainly afford the oil, but he knew with 100% certainty that the only difference between a $90 auto builder branded can of synthetic oil and a known petroleum producer brand $7 can of synthetic oil was the branding. He also noted he was 100% sure the car builder didn't also own a refinery, so they were getting their 'special' oil from someone else, probably one of the $7 a can producers. He concluded by saying that, while there were plenty of uninformed owners, and probably just as many wealth flaunters who would pay that price, he wasn't one of them. It's safe to say that those two categories of buyers are probably well represented in our hobby, and the desired target for things like $90k power cords.

For those who are losing sleep over this expensive audio cable, please try to relax on this Grand Vividus bed.    MSRP:  $390,000. There’s a waitlist. 

- - - 

After a refreshing nap, take a ride out to the country in your Lykan Hypersport.  MSRP:  $3.4 million.    Fortunately, no waitlist.

Steve, joking aside, I agree with your statements.  

Do you believe there is really someone out there that would purchase this power cord?

I certainly hope this is some kind of joke.

I just sold my Bugatti so I'll be buying a complete loom.

Perhaps one should ask Jay’s Audio Lab, you know, the ultra high-end, clickbait man, how all this works… 

I just sold my house so I could buy three of them. 😁

Friends. I know guy who can get it for $34,000.00. Operaters are standing by. 

We, as music lovers, are not idiots.

Speak for yourself, buddy

What's with all these high-end cables borrowing names from Norse legend?

It's worth pointing out that the $94500 cable physically looks worse and rather more poorly made than most Aliexpress $30 cables.

The "audiophile" fuse seems a perfect example of a Verblen good.  When I started doing this they cost about $0.20 each and you can now purchase the QSA Silver fuse for $5,000, or 25,000x what I paid for a fuse in 1975.  You are not buying anywhere close to a 25,000x improvement in sound quality so the sales model likely targets customers with FOMO and/or a need for increased social status. Taking a slightly different position from @kennymacc, I couldn’t care less (but I knew what you meant ).

@sns - BTW, "Products like this exist" because there are people out there willing to pay for them or, in the words of P.T. Barnum, "there's a sucker born every minute."

I don’t get too hung up on components outside of my budget, dwelling on it only leads to misery.  Already spend plenty of effort trying to determine components within budget.  

If someone can afford and wants to buy a 100k power cord, or a whole loom, great that they can afford to, and it’s their right. It’s also my right to say it’s stupid and these power cords are only bought by extremely gullible people. There does come a point where it becomes a little silly. $100,000 for a power cord, a wire, isn’t about diminishing returns, it’s about manipulating people who want to believe and can afford to. 

@kennymacc no, you clearly don't get the point.  And your invective, ironically, is a lot more "whiny" than the OP's open letter.  But whatever...thank you for your attention to this matter.

Actually, it's called capitalism, but agree with the sentiment.

@mattsca  @violi_doxari3a  

Oh, I get the point the OP is trying to make. However, it's just another example of whining, cry baby, waste of breath meant for those who simply can't afford the items, or have an intense (ridiculous) resentment for those who can.  I submit to you: is a 2.5 million dollar auto insulting to the auto industry???  Is a 50K watch insulting to the watch making industry???  Whether you or the OP like it or not, the high-end audio industry is just another industry, just like all the rest.  In all industries, there will be offerings in various price ranges, including the extreme, and I don't see a damned thing wrong with it.  It's called "CAPITOLISM."  Happy listening.  

But it probably sounds like a million bucks!

ozzy

Time for a little levity in this thread with no relationship to anything typed above:

Some of you have may heard the IBM radio commercial with Bob & Ray (or at least know who they are) about a new IBM printer sometime in the late 70's or early 80's..  And it starts out with Bob saying "I’ve created the greatest printer in the world"

Ray skeptically says "That’s great, but how much does it cost?"

Bob replies "It cost a million dollars"

Ray exclaims "how many do you expect to sell at one million dollars?"

To which Bob replies "I only need to sell one".

(We never found out if Bob sold one, unfortunately)

See Wikipedia for more:

A Veblen good is a type of luxury good, named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, for which the demand increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve.

The higher prices of Veblen goods may make them desirable as a status symbol in the practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. A product may be a Veblen good because it is a positional good, something few others can own.

Products like this exist because we have an economic system that distributes wealth in such a way that a $90k pc is same relative cost to some super high wealth individual as a $5k pc to a middle class individual. Knowing this, why does it really bother some that such a cable exists, are you annoyed with only this individual company, our economic system and distribution of wealth, with only the individual purchasing the cable?

Ol' PT Barnum was right...

"No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public."

Happy listening.

@bigtwin 

or pay out of.

Danish made, the OP wasn’t able to spell the name correctly through his grief. If you want to look them up the name is Ansuz not Asunz, as it is spelled at the top of the page.

Go green.  The ultimate tweak!  Save the audiophile!

In Nordic mythology Ansuz is the rune associated with the Nordic god Odin which translates into “communication through the god of wind”. It tells a story about wisdom, clarity and truth, all capacities that underlines our audio cable philosophy of limiting negative effects to a degree where it is either removed or no longer hearable.

Endorsed by Odin himself?  You go mythic god! I’m impressed!  Slow day?

Are these US made?  Much cheaper if no tariffs.

These gods need to give us more common shlubs a break already.  Start with my power bill.  I could use a really good power conditioner!

@bigtwin 

Ya beat me to it. 

@jafox   Now I thinking it was a waste of money when I had the dedicated cable run from the street to my system.

@jafox  First, Puritan is a well respected company that gets excellent reviews, many that I read right here on Audiogon.  Second is the issue of the stock cables.  Yes I have used them, but got sucked into the idea that better power cables from the wall to the amps etc. would greatly improve the sound. Well, that simply has not been the case for me.  There are lots of members who regularly post that big money Power Cables are waste of money and I guess I am now moving into that camp.

As for you comment about power cables improving the sound on the SoundLab speakers, I must defer to the designer of the speaker, Dr. Roger West.  I asked Roger about upgrading the power cable when I bought the speakers.  He unequivocally told me there was no need to do so.  Just this week I recieved this email from Roger:

Hello Eric,

The major work that we have been developing is a bias supply that uses a miniscule amount of the audio power from the amplifier to develop the bias voltage. This eliminates the AC power cord, but does not have any effect on the sound quality. The major reason for the development is to eliminate the challenges of different voltages and connector types in foreign countries. Further, it eliminates problems with importing speakers that use AC power, which usually requires an inspection. If you do not mind using an AC power cord then the self-bias approach would be of no value. Other than the self bias development we have not made any changes since you purchased your speakers 4 years ago. Best, Roger

I believe the operative words here are "miniscule amount".  So excuse me if I have trouble understanding how a better power cable is going to make a HUGE difference.  I mean, I get the fact you need to use a cable of sufficient size and shielding to feed the power demands of a big amp, but the miniscule amount of power my speakers require?  The same cable they are about to do away with?  I’ll do a little cable swapping but not expecting to hear the results.  Cheers.

Another + for @kennymacc...lots of threads/comments lately on super high price stuff...guess a $302,000 turntable makes more sense than a $90,000 power cord, but again, who cares...not sure it's exploitation though selling a super high price item in a free market to the super wealthy...

As for if its worth it to someone that’s up to them. But I agree this item has zero engineering backing to justify this type of price. There is not $90,000 worth of tech in a cable that can justify the price. Other then for bragging rights in a cost no object system that only the supper rich are buying, all good for them I suppose.  Regardless of what it may or may not do to sound quality

We know the difference between engineering and opportunism

You give the audiophile community too much credit. 

This stuff is not new.  Quantum Science Audio has been selling fuses and AC adaptors for $5,000 each (link fuse and link AC).  Yup, you can pay $10,000 for two small items that would cost you $5 at a hardware store!  Who is stupid, is it QSA for selling/pricing those items or the audiophiles who purchase them?

High pricing of audio products will continue as long as audiophiles keep shelling out their money.  If you want “honesty, sanity, and responsibility”, your plea should be to the audiophiles who purchase this stuff.   This isn’t much different from people who spend every paycheck at the casino.  Audiophiles are free to vote with their wallets and set their own level of stupid.  Not my problem.

A $90K power cord thread will always get the whiners stimulated.

I'm in the camp that says, it's not snake oil just a big time rip off. I'm sure it's nice but the community definitely gets taken advantage of 

HMMM at $90,000 I would only need to sell couple of them a year to make a decent living!!!!

violi_doxari3a

... a product comes along that crosses the line into absurdity — and, frankly, insults the intelligence of the global audiophile community ... A blatant insult to the intelligence of the global audiophile community ... it is contemptuous of the very customers who sustain this hobby ... they make the entire industry look foolish ...

I can't fathom why you'd feel insulted by the price of a product. There's no reason to take it personally. No one can make you look foolish unless you let them.

For that price I would think they could hire a copy editor and get rid of the typos on the website.

Gee, I wonder what cables of all gold would sound like? Might be cheaper.