News flash. The majority is overpriced. Which is why for 40 years 92% of my purchases have been purchased used. That’s the only way to build a decent system on a budget. I’ve spent 30 cents on the dollar to build a $12k system. The only new items I’ve bought in 15 years was a PSAudio dac, and Cambridge Audio CXC transport. That’s it. Used tube monoblocks, speakers, preamps, both tube and SS, turntable, and phono preamp. All used, all the time. Buying new is buying a 2 year warranty. I’ve never had a single component die on me. End of story.
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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A huge driver of cost at the manufacturing level is "how many". I once talked to a Jaguar engineer and he told me they paid $500 for a set of brakes becasue they bought only100 at a time; Ford paid $50 for the similar set becasue they made 10,000. The cost of scale DOES make a huge difference in price. Some of the beautiful metalwork I see in amps or speakers I see must cost a ridiculous amount to make - I know they aren’t maing 10,000.
Brad |
Good discussion, guys. To the OP’s point, I think the answer is "yes" that high end manufacturers CAN overprice their goods. In the cost/performance metric of mere mortals (like us) the math just doesn’t work. And we feel a bit frustrated when folks inject their own value component into the mix that is clearly above our paygrades -- and didn’t ask OUR opinion about whether the sonic (or otherwise) value is there. How dare they!! "Messaging" is an important element and could negatively impact current and future hobbyists. The question becomes WHERE are those messages being placed and HOW are they effected by them? Or is it just "noise." I sold decent Hi-fi gear for decades. We had a speaker line whose market positioning statement included “owning 50% market share of speakers over $10k a pair.” When presenting this to customers, the vast majority were shocked that there were speakers over $10k a pair on the market. After allowing them a few seconds to "recover", I’d inject: "You’d be surprised by the number of speakers out there over $100k a pair." The point here is there are still virgin ears out there who can be introduced (properly) to high performance audio -- with an emphasis on sound-for-the-buck. As @hilde45 suggested: "We must keep morality contained, or it might take hold." I think there may be a valid (and, useful) point here that, perhaps, we have a higher purpose than being “audiophiles” in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure, more than once, someone (knowing our obsession with high performance audio) has asked our opinions. We’ve straightened people out more than once. Sometimes avoiding disaster (or divorce?). A helping hand (and, brain) can go a long way in separating “noise” from useful information, fact from fiction. As one professional contributor stated (I’m paraphrasing): “A high resolution audio system can be bought for under $5k.”. I agree with that statement provided the person can keep their ego in check. I’ve spent quite a bit of time identifying elements that connect us and developed some materials to help illustrate the relative group size vs our level of intimacy. We, in this forum, fall into the “Shared Indulgences” group where we share things we are passionate about (music and the stuff that makes it happen). Above that group is a smaller (and, more intimate group) I refer to as “Purposeful Bonds” where there is some level of higher purpose in what we are doing. As you can see, there is the aspect of migration UP where some may seek a higher, more purposeful (and, yes, more ethical) involvement. Above that level is “Heartstrings” where deep friendships can develop as a result, and we become like family. The group below “us” (speaking purely of involvement in audio, not intellectually or other component) is the “Navigating Complexity” group. So, they are there just like us moving about trying to get things done when, all of sudden, we discover we share an interest. So, up the ladder we go. Or, not? Here’s the link, if you want to check it out. You’ll need to scroll near the bottom to get to the pyramid. https://youniteusa.com/connections It’s also been said that "people spend money on what their attention is on." So, keeping this group and it’s influences on high performance audio helps insure the health of the industry -- and, the hobby.
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Daveyf, interesting I got into speakers around 2002 in college and things were already pretty expensive. The Wilson Sophia came out and I think it was around $12k at least by the time I noticed it. Interestingly as I have made more and more money in my adult life speakers just keep going up equally. By the time I was ready to buy Wilsons from both an interest and from an income standpoint they were on the Sophia 3 and it was $16,700, unless you wanted a different color then it was somehow $19,000??? Then today the Yvette (Sophia successor) is what $28k. So compared to my first engineering job out of school I make 2.6 times more now and Wilson have gone up 2.3 times in price. it is all pretty crazy to think about. I blame suckers who buy over priced stuff without a proper A/B test. I have no problem with people spending any amount of their money on anything but I don’t believe a lot of things are actually better and are just different. |
"Bottom line: If you look at only the material cost and direct labor part of a $133k pair of speakers, you will find the speakers over priced." This is a problem I and others have had with what we consider trolls on Audiogon. They quote the cost of materials and direct labor-so what? There are many other significant costs associated with equipment, particularly electronics and speakers which result in high costs relative to sales price/margins. The tweaks and cabling are where the margins can be huge and can be highly profitable. R&D generally costs the most to make a successful (sonically and economically) tweak. An SR Master Fuse at $595 sales price costs almost nothing to manufacturer but the R&D and/or luck created a masterpiece Fuse. A $22 Acme Fuse is absolutely a bargain compared to a stock 50 cent fuse. The margins are great but the results can also be great (Fuses saved my EAR 864 from resale as well as my Emotiva XDA-1 highly modified/upgraded DAC). I am neither poor nor very wealthy but at the cost of a "high-priced" tweak with high margins, I improved my system much more than paying for an equipment upgrade. Again, will anyone address the potential problem of obsolescence/inability to repair due to a manufacturer’s bankruptcy? P.S. I can afford an EAR 912 and already own(ed0 a $9K DAC (COS Engineering D1v) and have a $150K listening room but chose musically more satisfying equipment regardless of price. |
Two things... it's about margin (profitability) and what the Market will bear. I once consulted for a fairly high-end, reputable and recognized amplifier manufacturer. They were conducting a market study on a proposed $10k pair of monoblocks. The feedback they received was for the quality of amp they manufacturer, most felt that price was "too low" at the time. They decided to price them at $25k and after bringing them to market, they sold quite well.... That said, sometimes it isn't what the may feel is a fair price, but rather what their customer deems fair and worth the value. |
@james633 Sure, there are a number of more ’entry level’ products for the beginner audiophile, but this is not really the issue. When I first started in this hobby ( decades ago), as a young lad, I was struck by the fact that I could get into the hobby and the cost was similar to what I would have to pay at any large department store, who wanted to sell me an all-in-one off the shelf system ( with very limited ability and quality). BUT, and here’s the thing, I also noticed that in order to step up in the hierarchy of top-flite gear towards the top, I did not have to essentially pay sums that equated to a new house! (like today). That difference ( which I see as Major!) is what I believe is going to put-off most new and young potential hobbyists. |
@sokogear While there certainly is a marketing reason behind this strategy ( the halo effect), I believe it is also self- defeating in the long run. For the reason I stated in my last paragraph above.
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They looks sweet and I am sure they sound good. Luckily there are lots of good speakers coming out around the $5k mark for the new younger people if they are interested. While I have not heard them speakers from arendal sound, Mo Fi and even the new marten Logan motions are probably all 99% of what most people need. I added up my system the other day and I somehow have $50k worth of gear. If you would have told me I would own $50k worth of gear I would have laughed and said that would be dumb…. But here I am. So I guess if you have it you have it and if you can afford $133k speakers the price is not an issue. A $5000 purchase might be a bigger stretch for the average family. |
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). |
There is definitely a psychological factor in sales of any high priced and therefore exclusive product. In high end audio, this is absolutely a factor as well. Probably we have all heard of the dealer rep who has told the manufacturer that their price structure is too low, in order to have a product that has a greater appeal to their consumer base who equate price with quality and ability. I think this circumstance is most likely getting more popular in high end audio than ever. Which is a somewhat vicious cycle, as it tends to price out those but the most ardent and well heeled hobbyists. Certainly, it is not a good thing, at least IMHO, for the continued health of the industry; as it certainly puts off the young music lover who now looks at high end audio as purely an ’elitist’ endeavor! |
I guess...yes? This is clearly in your wheel house, so I'm trying to follow out the logic. My guess is that whether the coffee/audio analogy can be extrapolated in this way would depend on empirical psychological factors which someone could study. It sounds like commonsense to me, but the devil would be in the details! ;-)
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The question is whether the Supra expensive product is delivering an outcome that can’t be achieved at a lower expense my dress watch from Tiffany has a quartz mechanism that keeps perfect time and requires a 75 dollar battery change every 3 years the same model with an automatic movement is 4 times the price, requires a 500 dollar overhaul in 5 to seven years and is less accurate Resale in my quartz is 20 percent cs cs the automatic held its original price
perception of the value does not match the reality. Same with tubes bs solid state. We don’t use tubes to make our TVs have a less clear picture that is more natural
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Last year I heard the just released Burmester 216 and was very impressed with the liquidity and the ease of operation driving a Sonus Faber Lilium. I asked the sales rep. the usual generic questions and $35k was quoted. I thought this an extreme value when considering brand/build quality and near reference SQ. When comparing the Burmester to any Hegel amp(mid fi darlings?) which company is making more profit(%) on a component. Compare the Hegel H30a at $20k? and the Burmester 216. My conservative guess is the the Burmester is at least 3x more costly to produce. Clearly the Burmester is a superior product and represents better value. |
"hyperbolic price increases" When the "market" determined that a $4 cup of coffee could actually be enthusiastically adopted when the "norm" was 99 cents -- with free refills, it may have been a good example of a game changer? It might be interesting to take a granular approach and determine how consumers prioritized the elements of that $4 cup of coffee at the time: "the coffee"- 99 cents, "being actively involved in the coffee culture"-99 cents, "looking good while I’m drinking coffee"-99 cents, "an affluent, unique experience"- 99 cents, "free wifi" - 4 cents? Now take those numbers and project a straight line out to 100,000 times that investment ($400k) while removing the word "coffee". Is there some level of consistency in the motiviators? |
Who's to decide? Are you suggesting that there should be no limits? |
Very well put. Their motivation by the "intangibles" specifically referenced here place them outside of audiophilia, in my opinion, as their concern is about their power (relative social status) and that is neither about "sound" nor "music." (Nor about their soul, if we channel Pope F.)
This is really insightful. Let me see if I got the gist: the intrusion of hyperbolic price increases ("game-changer" products and prices) creates a carve-out which damages an existing market segment. That segment has high quality (if a bit more expensive) stuff. They experience a new customer drought. Here, my mind goes to, say, an expensive Hegel H30 amp which at, say, $16k may be just a fantastic amp and an end-game solution for many customers in that aforementioned segment. But now, if enough people are now chasing, say, Gryphon amps, then Hegel has a problem because the carve out is starving them. I hope I am getting that right. |
I suppose I could purchase a pair of $133,000 speakers if I want to economize a lot elsewhere in our lifestyle... If my wife would let me, of course 😎. She needn't worry. It ain't going to happen. Our values and goals are aligned. Once said, the comments made by Pope Francis and the criticism of materialistic values is a slippery slope. Consider a $133k or $3k pair of loudspeakers. If you get on his slope then you have to ask, "Why should we enjoy any stereo or hometheater system when there are poor people living in cardboard boxes?" We also would then have to ask, "Who's to decide how much we are allowed to spend, if anything, on loudspeakers?" Hopefully Pope Francis is not making the decision. Fancis sounds like he forgot the story of the woman honoring Jesus by pouring expensive perfume on Him. Some of the people in attendance criticized the woman because the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus rebucked them for numerous reasons. And if I unpack this Gospel story, the economics major in me makes me see that there was a market for the perfume that honored Jesus. This means that somebody developed the perfume because they recognized the demand for expensive perfume. For the reasons cited in the Gospels, Jesus didn't have a problem being honored with expensive perfume. Implicitly, it would seem that Jesus didn't have a problem that there was an expensive perfume and a market for it. This brings us back to $133k speakers. If there is a market for the attributes the speaker offers, the law of supply and demand dictates that there will be some quantity demanded, that can be zero, by those who have the means. On the supply side, any product is going to have R&D costs that are outside of direct labor and material costs. Then there is also the general and administrative costs (G&A) associated with a product as well as sales and marketing expenses. The R&D, G&A, and S&M can be quite high relative to the direct material and labor cost. The speakers will be priced at the level that maximizes profits. Bottom line: If you look at only the material cost and direct labor part of a $133k pair of speakers, you will find the speakers over priced. If your look at the full context of a speaker's manufacturing costs, you might or might not find the speakers a fair value at market price. If your want to factor in some moral values about what people should be able to afford, all bets are off.
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The "market distortion" aspect as suggested by @hilde45 has merit in my opinion. Here’s this audio market where everyone plays nicely and introduces "new products or new versions" with incremental price increases of, say 10%-20%. Then, out of nowhere some manufacturer has the audacity to take that metric and increase it by a factor of 2 over previous "norms". This presents a number of possibilities for other manufacturers. The "sticker shock" of their top end products is has been obliterated by another company (thank you!) so their products appear to be a more reasonable cost/performance value. So, they would feel justified in raising the price, not just 20%, but 40% and still be very much in line with the perception of high performance AND high value. So, yes, a market distortion could follow the introduction of steep pricing into the marketplace. A little about the luxury market: Centi-millionaires, traditionally, don’t loose sleep agonizing over whether or not they received strong price/performance when making a purchase.. They are primarily concerned with owning something that really IS something worth owning. Sure, they’ll brag about the "guts" or "workmanship", but their true motivators may be the intangibles that can’t be measured. What is the prestige in owning the best of the best actually worth? And, if it IS expensive, wouldn’t it be viewed as a badge of honor rather than a shockingly high-priced trophy? Customers are also different. Many who engage in the ultra highend of a product category are true enthusiasts who love what they are doing and appreciate every nuiance their extraordinarily expense product does for THEM. They ARE getting great value from something they have heavily invested in. Back to the marketing considerations, I think we could look at various price ranges to see if a significant and meaningful gap exists whereby a segment of the buying public is being ignored, or has been abandoned altogether. As a result of that 2x product introduction, is there still a healthy market for legitimate high-value products at 1/2 that price, and somewhere in between? IF that 2x product negatively impacted the viability and availability of those other (lower) price ranges, then some measurable damage has been done. |
Very few of these extremely priced pieces of equipment are sold relative to the rest. Egos Drive most of these sales. Sitting in a room with extremely high priced equipment is hard to resist for those who have the funds, and many people do have the funds for these expenditures. Many of them are very gullible souls. The more seasoned and experienced listeners who really know what they’re doing can get the same Quality, and most often better, for considerably less. YouTube channels are culprits in promoting this exceptionally high priced gear, which serves to only stretch prices in a manufacturers lower end models. Even the Rich need to hold someone’s hand and there’s plenty of outreached hands. |
I only make 1 model bookshelf speaker ($9k/pair) now. Is it overpriced? Please remember my WT speakers are purist/cleanest sounding, closest to the original music, and the only no veil natural sound speaker in the world and 150 years of audio history. Alex/Wavetouch audio |
Not so surprisingly a lot of businesses fail because they didn't do basic homework on the cost of doing business like say opening a restaurant and not figuring out things like how much money I have to make just to cover all the costs at the end of the month. You would be surprised at how many simply don't do the math so when designing products with a limited economic audience, hopefully, you do some statistical analysis, and get a realistic idea of how many people are out there who can afford it but would purchase it. Though, When Dave Wilson started his speaker company with the Watt, he thought he would sell a few, 20- 30(I have the review somewhere). His business was recordings, records, but he ended up with 250 orders the first year and that was a very expensive item for what it did at the time. |
@yogiboy Actually, bears will poop anywhere, not just in the woods. So, yes, overpriced equipment abounds. More so with tweaks and cables where the cost to sales ratio can be phenomenally large. The Orion speaker was costly to design and manufacture with home built drivers yet. Whether it is sonically worth the $133K price is unknown, but it is an expensive audio product to produce from design to finish. @dean_palmer 100% @jimmyblues1959 Nope I have had the pleasure of hearing a $1 million+ audio system and it blew away any other system I've heard. My own system(s) cost me $5K and about $60K, the latter in a $150K custom listening room. The latter permits lesser cost speakers to sound like expensive speakers. I plan on upgrading from my currently valued $2500 full range Focuses to a superior speaker for reasons of greater listening area (e.g Von Scweikert) and ambiance/resolution which will cost me somewhere between $35K and $180K. I am satisfied for now but want to share with more than one or two people the sound of the center seat. There are some brands of high end, sometimes costly speakers which I do not find musically involving-Magico (heard 18+ A, S and Q series), Wilson (smaller the better), YG Acoustics, Vivid, Vandersteen, etc. I heard several Rockports and liked them. Still, I want to audition speakers in my room with my equipment to determine whether they will be worth the expense. I'm certain the the $180K VS Ultra 7s would be wonderful (I've heard the 9 and 11 and my best friend's VR35 export) but my budget does not allow that and at 67, I may be too old when I can afford it. |
I go to AXPONA every year and if you hear enough rooms you realize that some of these prices are not based on any cost formula. Made up out of thin air. I look at the Estelon speakers and they are a beautiful work of art and sound and I can see a wealthy person buying in. Some of the others not so much. For my money the Dynaudio Confidence 50 is all you could possibly want for sound. That room was my favorite. The jewelry aspect can't be denied at a certain price point. |
@thyname i will start my own post about it |
@grislybutter : Enlighten me! I am dumb, you are so smart. Thank goodness you are spreading your vast knowledge in here. I am honored |
@mihorn Try to find the you best speakers , just see small bookshelf , what s price ? more than $ 100, 000 ? |
@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). |
Relax. No need to get worked up. Plenty of affordable gear available in the marketplace, at all price points. Don’t freak out. They are not going away. On the contrary, markets are flooded with cheap China Audio gear.
@grislybutter : maybe I can help you: which component are you in market for, and at what price range? Unless of course you are all set and are here to just whine and moan about capitalism 🤯🤔 |
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.
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I am not convinced you always get what you pay for and I am skeptical of extreme prices. In 2005 the WAVAC 833A stereo amplifier was reviewed in Stereoplile magazine. Its price was $350,000. It had the grid of the 833A transformer coupled from a 300B SET. You can build this simple SET circuit yourself for less than $2000, $4000 if you use Western Electric 300B drivers. Hammond makes robust output transformers built the same way with the same materials as the most expensive Japanese transformers, all of which are not rated to carry as much DC current or signal current as the Hammond. You can drive the grids with Lundahl transformers which are arguably the best you can buy, and you can use globe 45 or 245 triodes which are built the same way Western Electric 300B triodes were built and drive them with mu follower directly coupled 6SN7 dual triodes. The power supply can have polypropylene filter capacitors when many $10,000 SET amplifiers use inferior electrolytic filter capacitors in the power supply. There has to be something fishy about selling such an amplifier for $350,000. What about speaker cables costing $27,000 a pair? How far do you have to go before credulity breaks down? Here is another consideration. A sound system will never perfectly reproduce how a live performance sounds. If a $5000 system is 70% accurate by some yet to perfectly define measure, is a system with six figure components that much closer, say $80? |
Last fall I went to the audio show in suburban DC, and I enjoy it (although pointing out to my friend who accompanied that audio is an old man’s game). I went into the many hotel rooms where speaker vendors were demonstrating their wares. A lot of fun actually, but what struck me is that with few exceptions that price had nothing to do with the quality of the sound coming from the speakers. Moreover, it was pretty clear that to distinguish themselves, speaker makers resort to outlandish physical designs to stand out in the crowd. And when I say "outlandish", it means "ugly". Finally, my observation is that most of these speaker makers won’t be around in 3-5 years, but more will spring up in their place, as long as people are willing to pay for them. It seems you don’t need a lot of capital to get into the speaker business. |
@henry53 while the example you use is unfamiliar to me, I would not want to be the guy who buys this clock and then needs to re-sell it. Here’s the thing, I don’t think we are actually discussing the value of something to someone, particularly when it comes to some high end gear, more about what is a price that even the most well heeled say… “enough is enough”. Some folks may believe that there is no price that will bring about this reaction, the question in my OP was dealing with that. Certainly, if we are to believe Dan D’Agostino, he has not gotten push back from his customers…yet. But my point is more along the lines of where does that become a problem for these manufacturers…like Rockport and D’Ag, or is it that they can push the prices up to multiples of what they currently are..and still see healthy interest and sales! |
In the U.S., the share of our population that fit the demographic for being in the middle class has been shrinking for decades and is now below 50%. Poor people do not buy expensive audio systems and America is a country loaded with poverty and near-poverty. Kids today are not doing as well as their parents, economically speaking. Not even close. So manufacturers have been more and more targeting the wealthy. When prices for components hit the mid 5 to 6 figure range, price has little to do with cost for most of those items-- like a $100,000 amp. They are accepting the sad reality that there will be fewer and fewer customers for the high end-- so they raise prices WAY UP to pad margins and live with fewer and fewer sales. A race to the bottom that feels like up! |
In business they have a similar set of equations that we used to calculate the price point that maximized revenues. Of course we had to have a demand vs price curve.
There’s not a single major company on earth that doesn’t understand the demand and price relationship. I think it’s fair to say that some of them will go to extraordinary lengths to ramp up demand. It is said that Big Pharma was making $1000 every second during the most recent p(l)andemic. With that kind of money they could afford the greatest PR campaign in history, and they did.
Luckily we audiophiles are still seem as relatively small fish compared to what happens in the art world. The fairly recent sale price of Cy Twombly’s Untitled fetched $46, 437, 500 USD back in 2017. Most of us would be reluctant to pay $50 for what appears to be slapdash broad red paint stripes on a canvas if we saw it in a thrift store. Encouraging a few well placed friendly ’journalists’ to whip up demand for high priced audio is kids stuff in comparison.
Here are some more surprising examples of what demand can do to price.
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@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. |
I don't see what the big deal is, the wealthy can afford more expensive cars, houses , boats, food, and many other things. Obviously most of these super expensive pieces of audio gear are not overpriced, look at Dan D'Agostino audio, their relentless amplifiers went up in price about $100,000 since it's inception, so they must be selling quite a few of them. |
Yes indeed. This is unacceptable! Everyone should get the audio system they deserve at the price they can afford to pay. Everyone should be rewarded by their need, not their wealth. Wait ....🤦♂️🤦♂️ |
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" |
While I think it is interesting and instructive to affirm the many costs that go into every product, I think this has little to do with the cost to acceptance factor that is in my OP. The question of whether something can be overpriced in this hobby to the point that all buyers say..no mas; is what I am questioning here. The example in my OP is of a speaker that has just received an absolute rave review by RH in the current issue of the Absolute Sound. I picked this example for a couple of reasons...1) it is priced at $133K, which only a few years back was almost unheard of for a piece of audio gear, and yet today, as other members have pointed out, is becoming more and more common and 2) It is a somewhat diminutive design that on the face of it does not seem to offer the glitz that a lot of ultra high end buyers are looking for...because they use their eyes as more of a factor than their ears. To that, I noticed in the new issue of Stereophile, there is a reply to a letter by a reader from Jim Austin, stating the following: " the run-up in prices at the extreme high end is astonishing and concerning. It’s also logical. .......There’s a danger this could lead to too much focus on products for the wealthy and not enough for those of more moderate means--that is to say, most audiophiles. It could even cause the industry to turn towards fancy audiophile jewelry at the cost of sonics- because how many of those shopping at such prices are serious, critical, obsessed audiophiles?"
He then states:" Fortunately, though, most companies selling to that market seem to be doing it in a serious, uncynical way, exploring what can be done in engineering terms with such large budgets. Here's hoping the trickle down accelerates and that companies drunk on luxury high end cash don't forget about the rest of us." While this may be generally true, there are certainly many companies that may not be complying with this...see my thread on the cable forum as an example. |
