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Amp design logic

I hope you'll excuse my absolute and obvious ignorance...but this is a sincere question.

I don't get why one company is selling a new tube amp for ~$1000, and another is selling one for ~$50,000. What is one paying for? The proprietary circuit design?

Surely if one adds up the cost of the parts, trannies, chassis, etc. it's not worth $50K.

I accept that the more expensive one sounds lots, lots better. But what makes the price so high? Demand?

I think given a circuit diagram from a repair manual, I could eventually build most tube amps from scratch, using the absolute best of each part available. After I learn to solder. For less than $50K, just buying the best cap, resistor, wire, etc. made, for each part, I could slowly build an amp equal to the best in the world. So I don't get it.

What makes an amp worth $50K? It can only be the proprietary tube amp design.

Maybe another factor is the transformers. Each company seems to have their own iron, but that can't be a significant part of $50K?

Thanks, just really wondering about this. And wondering why don't I just make my own? If I buy one part at a time, eventually I can have the best amp there can be.

Jim
river251
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Kijanki, I not only admit it but I second it :-)

Great line! Best regards,
-- Al
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
What's the difference between a $2.4 million Bugatti Veyron and a $12,000 Chevrolet Aveo? They both get you from point A to point B.

I guess it's just a good thing that you are not asking about the REALLY expensive amplifiers. Sheesh....
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
A friend makes tube preamps by hand; when I bought one in the late 80s the price was around $1000. He investigated producing them commercially but found that setting up an actual production line would result in them having to retail at $3000 to $4000. One at a time he could hand built them in his basement and check everything himself; but having a factory, reps, dealers , advertising etc would require a much higher price. And this was for a produce that had already been developed; no research and development costs. Granted that some seem overpriced; quality seldom comes cheap for any type of product.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Stanwal, my friend was planning to do the same with amplifier he designed. Unfortunately this amplifier had tendency to oscillate in certain setups. I told him that it would be financial suicide if his amp will start damaging customers' speakers. He couldn't afford to buy many common speakers or spend a lot of time testing. Fortunately he gave up this idea. It is very difficult and costly to start such business and get any recognition.
river251 OP
154 posts
 
Thanks for all the enlightenment everyone. I was really hoping for a discussion of the components in a $1000 amp vs those in a $50,000 amp, and how much they, vs the designer's intellectual property, contribute to the quality (and cost) difference. In other words, can I take a standard amp design, use the best available parts, and get the sound of the $50K amp. If I can't even get close, the sound quality must come from the circuit design.

But I see the way I asked it, isn't exactly like that.

So, besides proprietary circuit and transformer designs, how much of the quality difference between $1000 and $50000 amps can be made up by putting the very best components in?

All the other discussion is pretty enlightening too, thanks.

Jim
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