Sopra No.2 Overpriced?

I hear good things about the sound, but as far as I know they are made out of painted pressboard.  The Magico S1 MK II's are the real deal, but I doubt they sound at all alike.  They have their own colorations, see if they suite you. 

So, lots of off topic points I want to contribute to.

The quality of products made in China is directly proportional to the parent company’s willingness to control that quality and partner with the manufacturer. Very high quality and crap comes out of Chinese assembly lines, all of it determined by the buyers.

The productivity of the American worker continues to go up while salaries have remained flat for the past 15 years.

Having said that, my own secret calculations say that the High End prices are around 10x the driver costs. Some are better, like Lawrence Audio, and some are much worse. I would put Focal at a much higher rate, plus they benefit from really cheap cabinets and inexpensive in-house drivers. The Magico S1 Mk II which I am not a fanboy for (nor particularly upset by) is all aluminum, and has 2 very nice Scanspeak drivers with proprietary cones and moderately expensive Mundorf crossovers. Then you have some one like Bose selling a 5.1 system out of 6 plastic boxes and $2 drivers for over $1,500. Amazing. :)

Ejr:

That makes perfect sense to me. :)  Now imagine if you could build your own, what kind of speakers you could afford. :)

Best,


Erik