I've mentioned this elsewhere in a post about the announcement of the SPU Century, another one of their 'celebration' pieces at €5k. More 'affordable', but still about twice the price of previous Anniversary SPU's.
Ortofon has always been one of the 'sane' audio manufacturers, who put value creation before value capture. This is I believe what kept them around for so long, but now they're spoiling their own party.
Just like that other long standing cartridge manufacturer Grado, they have adopted the strategy of most other high end audio manufacturers: making 'trophies for the rich'. An absurd price tag is of course essential to its 'allure'.
It seems to me that this focus on short term profit is not a sustainable business model and might just turn out to be a dead end. High end audio has always been a market for 'enthousiasts', who generally seem to be disgusted by this trend. The audiophile community may be unusual in many ways, but extreme wealth is probably not its common denominator.
So it really comes down to a 'them or us' kind of situation. What direction will the high end 'industry' choose? Will they return to their senses? I've predicted elsewhere that the first >$20k cartridges will probably 'hit' the streets before the end of the year, so I'm not optimistic.
Ortofon has always been one of the 'sane' audio manufacturers, who put value creation before value capture. This is I believe what kept them around for so long, but now they're spoiling their own party.
Just like that other long standing cartridge manufacturer Grado, they have adopted the strategy of most other high end audio manufacturers: making 'trophies for the rich'. An absurd price tag is of course essential to its 'allure'.
It seems to me that this focus on short term profit is not a sustainable business model and might just turn out to be a dead end. High end audio has always been a market for 'enthousiasts', who generally seem to be disgusted by this trend. The audiophile community may be unusual in many ways, but extreme wealth is probably not its common denominator.
So it really comes down to a 'them or us' kind of situation. What direction will the high end 'industry' choose? Will they return to their senses? I've predicted elsewhere that the first >$20k cartridges will probably 'hit' the streets before the end of the year, so I'm not optimistic.