Inflated prices in audio


Not being funny but I put a post into the thread about SME no longer selling tone-arms on their own saying they are not silly priced - I then had to row it back a bit when I saw that the SME V retails at £5500. 110 years ago it was half that price. My salary ain't doubled.

Likewise there are some real silly price audio equipment. If you index link top end audio from the 80's they would still come out significantly cheaper than now.

I'm not convinced that the best high-end from now is necessarily better than the stuff back then - different perhaps.

Is there any logical explanation for this? I think magazines like hi-fi world and what hifi are fairly responsible and do review a lot of real world products, but other publications are fixated with the utterly un-affordable.

What do you 'goners think?
lohanimal

Showing 1 response by bigkidz

Try to manufacture a quality product for a fair price - what ever that means.  In today's world, how many of them do you think SME sells each year. Cost to manufacturer, dealer mark-up, etc. leaves very little profit margin unless you can get a higher priced product sold. No to mention equipment cost and maintenance, paying people on your staff even when things are not selling that well, competition allover the place, etc.

VPI just came out with their 40th anniversary model at half the price of the one they built a few years back.  Not cheap but that was a big achievement for a manufacturer.