I would look at this from the other direction. Will consumers over pay for what they perceive to be top quality? This hobby is notorious for consumers who think quality comes with a high price tag. IMO as the price goes up so does diminishing return. There is a spot where double the price is double the quality. Then once you jump the shark you can pay out double for only 5% to 10% bump in quality. Some people have the money and how they spend it is no concern to me. We hear from people all the time chasing down that last 1% they are trying to find.
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…