I see a lot of ultra exotica being offered these days. For instance, road bicycles in the $20,000 range are available. That prices out people like me, but it doesn't mean that really great new bikes aren't available for much less, and these are lighter and better in many ways than anything I could have bought 20 years ago for the same price, even if not adjusted for inflation. You can spend $100K plus on a TV now, or spend $1600 and get something astounding compared to what you could get for $1600 20 years ago. There are those who have the money and want something extra special. The market is providing those goods, it seems to me more now than it ever used to. It's possible to over or under price the exotic stuff. You'll know it's under priced if it sells well but you can't make a profit on it. It's over priced if you can't sell enough to make a profit. Or it can be fine to lose money on it either way if it's viewed as a marketing campaign.
Is it possible for a high end manufacturer to overprice their goods?
Having just read the interesting and hyperbole laden review by RH of the new Rockport Orion speakers in the latest issue of The Absolute Sound, one thing struck me..
is it possible in the high end for a manufacturer to overprice their product ( doesn’t have to be a speaker, but this example comes to mind)? I ask this, as the Orion is priced at $133k! Yes,a price that would probably make 99% of hobbyists squirm. Yet, the speaker now joins a number of competitors that are in the $100k realm.
To that, this particular speaker stands just 50.3” tall and is just 14.3” wide…with one 13” woofer, one 7” midrange and a 1.25” beryllium dome ( which these days is nothing special at all…and could potentially lead to the nasties of beryllium bite).
The question is…given this speakers design and parts, which may or may not be SOTA, is it possible that this is just another overpriced product that will not sell, or is it like others, correctly priced for its target market? Thoughts…