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Stratospheric audio gear prices

The more time I have under my belt pursuing quality audio, the more I realize that high audio gear prices have some basis in their quality. Yet there is a limit. When you buy a Ferrari the cost is high, but you can see the money involved in the design and parts. Many would argue that high quality audio gear is similar to the quality and design of a hyper-car. But when you look a the sheer quantity an complexity of this kind of car, there is no piece of audio gear that compares. To me, a piece of audio gear that costs as much as even an inexpensive car is just a manufacturer cashing in because they can. Can you imagine what audio manufacturers would want to charge for a piece of audio gear that was the size and weight of a car? Like $100 million.  I believe it just drives the whole market up and we end up getting a little bit suckered. This is all perhaps a little overstated. I guess I just want to shame audio manufacturers. I do understand that they are not charities, or here for the betterment of mankind. If you are not frustrated by this, good for you.  Here is a quote from a book about marketing. The reference is a victim of link rot. Nevertheless it has common information. 
  

"Premium Pricing

Premium pricing is the practice of keeping the price of a product or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. The practice is intended to exploit the (not necessarily justifiable) tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation or represent exceptional quality and distinction . A premium pricing strategy involves setting the price of a product higher than similar products . This strategy is sometimes also called skim pricing because it is an attempt to "skim the cream" off the top of the market. It is used to maximize profit in areas where customers are happy to pay more, where there are no substitutes for the product, where there are barriers to entering the market, or when the seller cannot save on costs by producing at a high volume. It is also called image pricing or prestige pricing.

 

Luxury has a psychological association with price premium pricing. The implication for marketing is that consumers are willing to pay more for certain goods and not for others. To the marketer, it means creating a brand equity or value for which the consumer is willing to pay extra. Marketers view luxury as the main factor differentiating a brand in a product category."

Source: Boundless. “Market Share.” Boundless Business Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 07 Feb. 2017 from https://www.boundless.com/business/textbooks/boundless-business-textbook/product-and-pricing-strateg...

ericrt

Showing 10 responses by millercarbon

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millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
What millercarbon actually said:
So for example there are more trees in N America today than in the 1800’s because we are no longer cutting them down for heat and railroad tracks.

What unreceivedogma comes back with:
a pdf about forested area and, "the quality of today’s lumber is significantly inferior to that of 100 years ago."

The assertion there are more trees is met with forest lands and lumber quality. As if these are anywhere near the same- or even remotely related to each other!

This is why no, I will not have to back up anything with a citation. Why would I? You would just shift the target yet again. There is no point- at least not until you learn to discern what the point being made even is!


millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Yeah, it can’t possibly have anything to do with the fact we have printed as much money in the last two years as the whole history of the United States going back to Plymouth Rock, and are now at a rate of a trillion dollars a year. Printing a trillion dollars from nothing, what could go wrong?
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The meaning of life is to be alive. Duh. Without it there'd be nothing. Think about it. 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
That's an insult not an argument. Facts and logic being at odds with your received dogma are bound to be upsetting. So I will let it slide.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
That would explain, matter of fact it's all dark.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
To those who think people are untitled to spend as much as they want on this stuff, I vehemently disagree: on a finite planet with finite and continually depleting resources, it is … shortsighted and selfish to spend insane amounts of dollars on audio gear.

No, what is shortsighted is to view human beings as nothing more than a tube through which food is consumed, and resources as mere matter. Our greatest resource is the human mind, and so the more humans the more resources. 

What you think is scarce is in fact more readily available than ever. A thousand years ago all the copper, iron, gold, etc was buried in the ground. Now it is almost all dug up and refined.  

Not that we need it so much any more, because there's that intelligence again, we have figured out much better more efficient ways of doing things. So for example there are more trees in N America today than in the 1800's because we are no longer cutting them down for heat and railroad tracks.  

There's roughly a bazillion examples like that, but people don't know because the ones who are constantly running around predicting the end of the world are noisy and get all the press. Doom and gloom sells. Meanwhile productivity rises, poverty declines, and The End continues to be moved ever father off into the never-quite-gets-here future.

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
I've heard that from the perspective of many high-end manufacturers and dealers, the best way to make a small fortune in audio is to start with a large fortune.

Yes, it is a horrible business. The very best most high end components are an incredibly small niche market. Their most desirable attributes are qualities no one has figured out how to measure. They can only be evaluated by listening, something that requires either significant retail demo space or else a lot of at-home auditions with all the damage and restocking costs. Either way an expensive proposition. No wonder they demand 60% margins. Even then they do not clear much after all expenses are accounted for.

No wonder so many wind up being pushy, or elitist- they simply cannot afford to waste time on lookers. They need buyers.

The internet is helping, but only the really good manufacturers. Tekton, Raven, Decware, and other direct sales manufacturers of quality products, the internet makes them work. Then instead of retailers/dealers pushing product the emphasis shifts to enthusiastic buyers and reviewers talking about it. And there you go.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The reference is a victim of link rot. Nevertheless it has common information.

Another new one, link rot. What we keep coming back for: common information. On I end audio. No wonder the normies think we're crazy.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
I end audio. That's a new one.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
But when you look a the sheer quantity an complexity of this kind of car, there is no piece of audio gear that compares. To me, a piece of audio gear that costs as much as even an inexpensive car is just a manufacturer cashing in because they can.


You have much to learn, Grasshopper.

Can you imagine what audio manufacturers would want to charge for a piece of audio gear that was the size and weight of a car? Like $100 million.

So you think it has to do with size and weight. You have more to learn than even I thought. I am here to help. Can you clear you calendar for- let's see now, starting five miles from zero- say the rest of the year? 
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