While there are plenty of tube amps that one could call over priced the reality is it's hard to make a truly good tube amp cheaply. Parts cost can be quite high transformers in particular can be quite costly and are critical to an amps overall quality. Other parts such as capacitors and wiring can also be rather pricey. Basically in an amp with fewer parts the quality of those parts is even more important. Also the relatively beskope nature of these amps makes them that much more expensive, parts are bought in small quantities and cost more. Sometimes even vintage or very specialized parts are used. Factor in build time labor and a solid markup and you start from a fairly expensive "floor" cost. It's when you start seeing glitz and glam on amps and marketing hype and technobabble that prices start to skyrocket.
Tube Amp Pricing
I’ve been curious about the costs
of tube gear. As far as my layman eyes can see, the components in tube amps
look similar. And yet, the pricing is all over the place - $30,000 to $1,000.
Is it the amount of engineering that explains the wide differences in cost, the
components, or a combination of the two? Just curious