Really well done general breakdown of design/dev/costs that many just don't realize. Yea there is a lot BS in this hobby but also a lot of really solid companies doing great work. In the end it really just "depends" on the product/company and is a case by case basis.
Great show, great topic! Cost can be a sensitive subject for many and perhaps more so for the outsiders. No matter the interest in whatever product category, products come at various price points, the range is wide. Higher performance and design generally costs more, and many products in the market can reach 80% at considerably less, however, this is still short of 100%, and one can equivilate this to an academic letter grade to bring it into more perspective. In audio, the higher end is designed and made at the boutique level and sure it can be made cheaper if you want a widget. By no means should boutique automatically mean expensive, the brand has to be creative, well engineered and designed, have sustainability and earn the acceptance factor including vision for the future - not an easy road by any stretch. Business is never easy!
I prefer the route of established brands which spend sufficient on R&D and efficient manufacturing processes, such as Dynaudio, Rotel, Marantz (older models), Audiolab, Teac, Puritan, Tellurium Q, Tubulus. With those brands I have assembled a sub 10k system for a small room which beats the vast majority of more expensive systems quite easily. In large part because they get tonality right.
The comparison of cars and hi fi gear doesnt work. As to rip offs in audio gear, if you pay many thousands of dollars, for a set of speaker, interconnect, whatever, cables, you're being ripped off, period, end of story.
Greetings from Toronto ☕️ If you’re in this hobby /passion and can’t sleep at night because you just put a second mortgage on your home to buy the latest and greatest ($22k Kuzma Tonearm ..for example) …you’ve probably screwed yourselves. This hobby is logarithmic in price to performance improvement…and it always will be. Have a great week 👍
Cost me 4500 bucks for a pair of Raal 140-15D's, Lowther DX 65's, and 4 Jordan JX 150 NG II's. I was paying retail for the drivers. "Manufacturers", will pay half that and then sell for 10-20 times the cost. Worse with amplification, until I found Transcendent Sound kits. The OTL sound for pennies on the dollar is very addictive.
You can, in terms of dacs and amps, get SOTA performance for nothing like so called high end prices,dacs under a $1000 for example if its objective sound quality you after.
I'm going to have to strongly disagree on the corporate buy out discussion and add that no audio systems is worth six figures (Why you may ask: It's the room most use to listen to it in, moronic)!
How do you know that there is 4 times difference? Meanwhile, proportion between manufacturer income cost and retail price is normally from 3 up to 4 times. 3 is very rare, it is true for 1$ product as well as for 10k$.
@jm_1214 nope. Sometimes dealer has 40% margin, but ot is not a net profit (when we deduct money costs, bank credit commission, vat) dealer has 7%- 15% net profit. The same profit rate is for each player in a supply chain. When chain is short, total costs for end customer are lower
There are a lot of rip-offs in Audio. No cable is worth 2000 dollars and there is not even engineering involved if we are honest. Everyone over 40 can't even really hear all the details anymore but old man need unique stuff and as long there are people buying that stuff, I am fine with it. They want it, they buy it, somebody has to sell it....
@@jasonmilich4732 I did and they said I still hear like a 16year old... but that doesn't change the fact that we will loose frequency range while getting older. I am kind of perplex that some audiophiles seem to not know about this... even your samsung phone has "adapt sound" to boost HF for older users... in Europe they put up speakers on some facilities where they don't want young guys to hang out, just because the young can hear that disturbing very high pitched whine and older people don't.
@realmcerono do you think your "hearing like a 16 year old" makes you a statistical outlier or perhaps the hearing loss with age is less common now that people know about hearing protection?
Great video! I’ve meet both George and Mark and they are genuine and friendly guys. Mark’s turntables are end game!
Really well done general breakdown of design/dev/costs that many just don't realize. Yea there is a lot BS in this hobby but also a lot of really solid companies doing great work. In the end it really just "depends" on the product/company and is a case by case basis.
That would be a big fat Yes
Great show, great topic!
Cost can be a sensitive subject for many and perhaps more so for the outsiders.
No matter the interest in whatever product category, products come at various price points, the range is wide.
Higher performance and design generally costs more, and many products in the market can reach 80% at considerably less, however, this is still short of 100%, and one can equivilate this to an academic letter grade to bring it into more perspective.
In audio, the higher end is designed and made at the boutique level and sure it can be made cheaper if you want a widget.
By no means should boutique automatically mean expensive, the brand has to be creative, well engineered and designed, have sustainability and earn the acceptance factor including vision for the future - not an easy road by any stretch.
Business is never easy!
I prefer the route of established brands which spend sufficient on R&D and efficient manufacturing processes, such as Dynaudio, Rotel, Marantz (older models), Audiolab, Teac, Puritan, Tellurium Q, Tubulus. With those brands I have assembled a sub 10k system for a small room which beats the vast majority of more expensive systems quite easily. In large part because they get tonality right.
Rotel is always good
The comparison of cars and hi fi gear doesnt work. As to rip offs in audio gear, if you pay many thousands of dollars, for a set of speaker, interconnect, whatever, cables, you're being ripped off, period, end of story.
Once you've heard a revealing system
U understand required components
Openness, clarity & spaciousness
Comes w large considerable price tag
My (50 years old) $650. JBL Century 100's show up my $50K Maggie/REL system in many ways.
Greetings from Toronto ☕️
If you’re in this hobby /passion and can’t sleep at night because you just put a second mortgage on your home to buy the latest and greatest ($22k Kuzma Tonearm ..for example) …you’ve probably screwed yourselves.
This hobby is logarithmic in price to performance improvement…and it always will be.
Have a great week 👍
Cost me 4500 bucks for a pair of Raal 140-15D's, Lowther DX 65's, and 4 Jordan JX 150 NG II's. I was paying retail for the drivers. "Manufacturers", will pay half that and then sell for 10-20 times the cost. Worse with amplification, until I found Transcendent Sound kits. The OTL sound for pennies on the dollar is very addictive.
You can, in terms of dacs and amps, get SOTA performance for nothing like so called high end prices,dacs under a $1000 for example if its objective sound quality you after.
Wow!!! People who make a living selling audio don't think its a rip off.
Who would have thought 😂
I’m pretty sure that I said that I mostly agree with that statement.
15:24 ..Nakamichi ….just say’n
I'm going to have to strongly disagree on the corporate buy out discussion and add that no audio systems is worth six figures (Why you may ask: It's the room most use to listen to it in, moronic)!
20k for a pair of speakers that come out of the manufacturer for about 5k. Yes we get ripped off.
How do you know that there is 4 times difference?
Meanwhile, proportion between manufacturer income cost and retail price is normally from 3 up to 4 times. 3 is very rare, it is true for 1$ product as well as for 10k$.
I think that´s very optimistic 😅
Less. A 20k speaker costs the dealer 12k. The manufacturer has 2.4k into the pair. Complete rip
@jm_1214 nope. Sometimes dealer has 40% margin, but ot is not a net profit (when we deduct money costs, bank credit commission, vat) dealer has 7%- 15% net profit.
The same profit rate is for each player in a supply chain. When chain is short, total costs for end customer are lower
Yes and now, because a hearing all audio nuances is certainly an individual thing. So do not buy audio equipment sounding better than you can hear.
I just got a $50 grand manifold for my Gemini!
There are a lot of rip-offs in Audio. No cable is worth 2000 dollars and there is not even engineering involved if we are honest. Everyone over 40 can't even really hear all the details anymore but old man need unique stuff and as long there are people buying that stuff, I am fine with it. They want it, they buy it, somebody has to sell it....
It's ridiculous to to say men over 40 can't hear.
@@jm_1214Why? it's a fact, it is nature mate... you loose high frequencies first. I am 46...
@@realmceronoI'm 44 and still good up to about 16k, have you had your ears tested lately?
@@jasonmilich4732 I did and they said I still hear like a 16year old... but that doesn't change the fact that we will loose frequency range while getting older. I am kind of perplex that some audiophiles seem to not know about this... even your samsung phone has "adapt sound" to boost HF for older users... in Europe they put up speakers on some facilities where they don't want young guys to hang out, just because the young can hear that disturbing very high pitched whine and older people don't.
@realmcerono do you think your "hearing like a 16 year old" makes you a statistical outlier or perhaps the hearing loss with age is less common now that people know about hearing protection?
duh
Is DEUS a rip-off?