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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…

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Showing 2 responses by sokogear

sokogear
1,054 posts
 

It is called a halo effect. It creates buzz and if successful, increases sales of their lower end lines. A loss leader, unless maybe it is a tiny company hoping for a couple home runs.

Rega makes a $40K turntable and KEF makes $230K speakers.

Technology/design trickles down. I think KEF has sold less that 5 pair of them in the US and Rega about 50 or so WW and won't sell it to anyone who will resell it (Not sure how Roy does that).

sokogear
1,054 posts
 

That’s why some of the bigger manufacturers can offer better value in many cases, like KEF, Technics, Ortofon, Rega among others. So long as a high level of QA is in place these are well worth considering, except their very low volume models.

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