Is it possible for a high end manufacturer to overprice their goods?

I would comment but it would get removed - as before

making fun of the wealthy and their justification of why they *need* and *deserve* to buy x and y.

Reading this forum is an amazing social experiment about how delusional rich people are.

and btw I wonder if the Lamborghini comparison is appropriate for most audio products. Lamborghini - whoever owns it - does not claim that their car is x times better than other cars. It's VW plastic in large part. But you can drive it to the mall to impress people, which is where the price is justified. Audio does not have that feature. 

@8th-note what is a "household worth a million"? The house is worth a million? With the mortgage paid off? Or they have 1 million in assets? Liquid assets? Otherwise it’s worth ZERO as far as disposable income - they can’t buy speakers from their 401K.

I live in a city of 2 million people where a third of the houses are valued over 1 million and these people are not millionaires in any sense. They can’t afford a 10K system let along 2K. They are happy to pay their bills and late fees by the end of the month.

... and so I looked it up.
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2022/demo/p70br-181.pdf

Net worth includes equity in the home. By that definition 4 out 5 of my neighbors are millionaires. Yet they can't afford dental work and new tires on their 15 year old Corolla. Let alone a pair of decent speakers. 

@mitch2 that's why some (more practical) definitions exclude the primary residence because you have to live somewhere. Audio-spending-wise, your salary and liquid assets will matter infinitely more than what your house is worth.

@8th-note no doubt, lots of big spenders out there. I don't see a lot of new hifi stores in my town, but a lot of new record stores and I assume hifi stores will follow.  

I think you are answering your own question: are there people out there who will pay more than the company thinks people will pay for its product? As long as diamonds and designer bags sell, men will pay for their own toys stupid sums. 

I find this a unique a fascinating hobby, almost unlike any other (maybe some extreme technical sports or car racing). True audiophiles would always look for the value and not pay for the luxury premium (I think) ~whatever makes the car faster

So I don't see the danger of this scissors of reasonable and luxury segment causing runaway prices. Most companies the users deal with here can barely turn a profit, they have no capacity to build "Lamborghinis"

@wesheadley 

but but!

job creation!

they deserve it!

...

:)

@thyname you obviously misunderstood what I wrote, and that's the kindest way I can put it. Don't try too hard, it might be too complicated for you.

@tomrk

when I say "outlandish", it means "ugly".

I have been thinking about the same thing, which is very much like the OPs question, how high they can go with the price?

How far they can go with the ugliness that these top of the line products’ design represent?

So many are hideous looking, an absolute crime against basic design principles, for the same amount of money and effort they could be just look normal or pleasant - aesthetically.

@thyname i will start my own post about it

@thyname i don't need your help, not sure when/where I gave you that impression. 

I was not saying a word about capitalism. Again it's more complicated than that and if you didn't comprehend it the first time, I doubt I can convey it to you. Which proves my point, if you didn't live in your bubble, your mind would be more open to the seeing what is disturbing here (NOT capitalism).

" You cannot possibly be the CPA for both a drug cartel and a speaker manufacturer"

many CPAs don't know they work for the mob. I know this from Hollywood movies :)

in an ideal world, 2 speakers from different brands with similar sound, characteristics, measurements, materials (~+-10%) would be priced similarly. But they aren't. 

If you don't burn 100 dollars bills after you sniffed coke with it, do your research. There is an amazing selection out there, be a numbers guy for a day.

the average (audiophile) low end is $400 and the high end is 60K, based on ~70 brands. There are less than a few well known brands who make speakers for over a 100K. I would call them luxury priced, not overpriced

I think overpricing is more common in the jump from mid-fi to hi-fi, when the differences are not substantial but the price jump is

fun fact: the most expensive speakers are made in a region, a fairly straight line from Switzerland to the Netherlands.

@kokakolia I have been looking at prices for 3 weeks now, 100s of speakers (243 and counting), and I don’t see it. Sure there are outliers but for the most part, these companies’ managers aren’t driving Teslas. There is great value at 3K and even better value at 10 and there may be of course, a bigger markup over 20K but way fewer buyers too. The competition is immense that keeps prices in check.

@kokakolia 

Surprisingly Sonus Faber pricing favors the mid-range, the more you pay the exponentially more value you get.

There are two strategies: make the profit on the lower end vs the top end. Of course, with the sound, everyone's priorities are different, for me the best (perceived) value is the no overhead boutique brands 

in luxury goods, price is one component of the value.  The manufacturer is not selling a function, they are selling the brand. Add limited production-  reduce the supply for the same demand and price may be increase even more.

The best part is: they don't need to sell any. They can keep selling the midrange stuff and claim trickle-down buzzwords and increase its price by 10%