Maybe it's a tactic to make the $90k model look like a bargain.
Could these be your next cable loom??...and price be damned.
On the Stereophile web page, there is a report of the Estelon room at Axpona, along with the $330k cables from Crystal Cables, called the Art series. One poster states that Gabi ( one of the Crystal Cable owners) knows what she is doing when it comes to pricing strategy.
I thought this thread could piggy back my question on the Speaker forum and ask a similar question here, will sales accrue for her $330K cables, or is it possible that she over stepped...and no sales will actually occur? If Gabi knows her market ( and who are we to say she does not), i question how she has this knowledge...so that she does NOT price her new Crystal Cable Art cables at say $3 Million and instead hits the sweet spot at $330k??? Anyone?
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@mike_in_nc Good point, hadn't thought of that, LOL. |
In the Crystal Art Series line, the top of the line is the DaVinci line (per The Cable Company and Jonathan Valin): Speaker - $48,000/2 meters Interconnect – $23,900/1 meter Power Cord - $15,000 1 meter Phono (Van Gough, 1 step down) $9,000/1 meter I assume the speakers are further away from the electronics than 2 meters. At Last year’s AXPONA I listened to the Estolon speakers which were quite a distance from the electronics. To reach $330,000 in speaker cable alone would require 6.875 meters of speaker cable. So if the rest of the loom plus the speaker cable totaled $330,000, then that looks like a great bargain to me. I’m waiting for my Lottery jackpot. I just missed the last one by a mere 6 numbers.
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Those are aimed directly at the people who have no issues with spending that kind of money on something like cables. The same kind of people who could drive a Bentley or Lamborghini and not lose any sleep if they crashed it. Funny thing is, they won't change the sound of their stereo any more than a pair of Blue Jean cables. It's about status and bragging rights. |
Of course this is totally mad. But Gabi knows there are is a small handfull of mad buyers out there that will pay $300,000 for $5,000 (max) of wire. @jhnnrrs How does offering a $300,000 cable add credibility to the brand? For most of us it just demonstrates that the manufacturer is nuts and, more important, he grossly over-prices his products. Leave a wide berth unless you have money to burn. |
@clearthinker Of course it's mad. It's just stupid to pay $1000 for speaker wires. But as to credibility, there are those that would look on a $300,000 product and think that the vendor must have incredible engineering resources leveraging ground-breaking technology to provide something at that level and assume that some of that technology must be trickling down to the lower price points. Of course, there are those, like me, that realize these prices represent nothing more than the cajónes of the manufacturer, and have nothing to do with quality, engineering, or technology, and it's a measure of just how shady they are. |
New on the scene is Kinki Studio's line of cables which look a lot like Crystal Cables cables. They are very reasonable and nowhere near the outrageous prices that Crystal is asking for. Here's a link to line. They're too new to be seen on their website so the preview from 6moons has to do for now. Here's one shot of their cable line up.
All the best, |
@nonoise There are a number of competing cable manufacturers who are out there selling cable looms at all different price points. Some of these folks have cables that I, and I believe most of you, would say are more than competitive with the top priced wares from the likes of Crystal Cable. Gabi has to believe that she does not have this type of competition at lower price points, meaning that in order to obtain the level of sound reproduction you hear with her cables, you have to pay what she asks. Hopefully, with the right hyperbole laden review, some well heeled folks will be convinced of the superiority of this particular product. After all,at the price asked, I doubt too many sales need to realized to make her margins. My question is, and it segues to my thread on the speaker forum, is assuming that these particular cables have no competition ( a pretty big assumption), is there a limit to what can be asked, before all potential consumers say…No mas! If so, how do folk like Gabi, know what that number is? |
@daveyf Outfits like Crystal Cable have been in the business long enough to know what their clients want and can afford. They also know the nature of this hobby down to what percentage of their client base can afford to go higher. Most likely, they'd be somewhat amused by the regular folk who frequents this site and expound upon it. All the best,
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@nonoise while I believe what you say about companies knowing the floor of what can be attained price wise, I doubt they truly know the ceiling.
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Chump change. Positive Feedback recently had an announcement about Ansuz’s new top-o-the-line cables (can’t recall the name of the series...maybe Gold) and, along with the complimentary power conditioner being introduced that was commensurate with the cables, I calculated that the whole schmeer necessary to power up/hook up my two source system from stem to stern would run slightly north of a million bucks. This is just wire and power conditioning only. I dashed off a little missive to the rag expressing my contempt for the excessive hubris implied by such an offering but turns out that my opinion on the matter was as valuable to them as my dollar contributions to their bottom line ( nada) and I was summarily dismissed without comment. |
Cables (or anything else for that matter) at this price point are not for everyone, in fact for very very few people. So if you have to question the price and make idiotic comments on this post, then you clearly cant afford them - but in truth secretly want to. Move on, get a grip, lets talk about gear that exists for us in the real world. |
@cominatchya I posted this on the similar thread that I started on the speaker forum: Part of my OP came from a recent discussion that I had with a very very well heeled friend who can easily afford anything in high end audio. To this gent, a multi million dollar system is no strain on the pocketbook. What interested me was his comment that he will not spend any money on a product that he sees as having a minimum value to cost ratio. We discussed several speakers ( not Rockport’s, and certainly not the Orion), but others that we all know and would respect, but few here can acquire. My friend commented that one of the reasons he is able to actually afford all of these products is also because he has the discriminatory ability to not get ’taken’, as he put it. Just to add another perspective to the narrative here. Don’t get me wrong, this gent has a system that most would envy, but it has been put together with some considerable thought, and he always bought used or at a considerable discount, as far as I know.
The same thing applies to cables. Nothing to do with affordability. Simply to do with price to desirability and buyer's acceptance of said pricing. |
