I am in product development. Don;t forget that R&D expenses can sometimes be significant. Initial product samples are all hand made. Co-manufacturers of subsystems or other parts charge for their prototypes If you are developing something new then you have to go through many rounds of prototyping to get the results you want. And then once you have the design you are looking for you have to scale up and figure out how to manufacture it. Sometimes you have to buy new equipment, a new line. Then you have to iron out the manufacturing wrinkles, so the first line runs may have high defect rates. All of this can be very expensive, Engineering time, craft people to hand make samples, materials travel ect. All of these expenses have to be built into the cost. The actual material and labor cost of any piece of gear sometimes not the most significant cost. If the projected market or number of units that they think they can sell is not large then all the development costs are spread over a relatively small number of units. For the most part I don;t think that greed is driving the cost of high end gear. As in most things you get what you pay for. However it seems that charging what the market will bear can be a factor.
Is the main reason audio equipment depreciates so much is
1.Because technology is always changing and people always want the latest and greatest.
2.It is expensive to repair when it breaks.
3.It has always depreciated a lot since the inception and that is just the pattern it has always stayed in.
4.It is overpriced to begin with.
2.It is expensive to repair when it breaks.
3.It has always depreciated a lot since the inception and that is just the pattern it has always stayed in.
4.It is overpriced to begin with.