@tomcarr Yes, I've seen the 22 million millionaire figure also. I believe that the 5.3 million represents the number of households worth a $1+ million and 22 million is the total number of people in those households. Since each household would probably have a maximum of 1 ultra expensive stereo system I used the lower number.
Is it possible for a high end manufacturer to overprice their goods?
Having just read the interesting and hyperbole laden review by RH of the new Rockport Orion speakers in the latest issue of The Absolute Sound, one thing struck me..
is it possible in the high end for a manufacturer to overprice their product ( doesn’t have to be a speaker, but this example comes to mind)? I ask this, as the Orion is priced at $133k! Yes,a price that would probably make 99% of hobbyists squirm. Yet, the speaker now joins a number of competitors that are in the $100k realm.
To that, this particular speaker stands just 50.3” tall and is just 14.3” wide…with one 13” woofer, one 7” midrange and a 1.25” beryllium dome ( which these days is nothing special at all…and could potentially lead to the nasties of beryllium bite).
The question is…given this speakers design and parts, which may or may not be SOTA, is it possible that this is just another overpriced product that will not sell, or is it like others, correctly priced for its target market? Thoughts…
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@8th-note what is a "household worth a million"? The house is worth a million? With the mortgage paid off? Or they have 1 million in assets? Liquid assets? Otherwise it’s worth ZERO as far as disposable income - they can’t buy speakers from their 401K. I live in a city of 2 million people where a third of the houses are valued over 1 million and these people are not millionaires in any sense. They can’t afford a 10K system let along 2K. They are happy to pay their bills and late fees by the end of the month.
... and so I looked it up. Net worth includes equity in the home. By that definition 4 out 5 of my neighbors are millionaires. Yet they can't afford dental work and new tires on their 15 year old Corolla. Let alone a pair of decent speakers. |
Uh, assuming their houses are mostly paid off, actually they are millionaires, based on the commonly used definition:
More interesting information:
and,
Of course, as you observed, being a millionaire based on assets is different from having a million dollars. |
@daveyf - I don't know how you can judge price/value without listening to the thing. That price point is not even close to the top these days --not justifying high prices but my limited experience with Rockport gear- both table and speakers- was top notch. Look at the competition- Wilson, Magico, YG, all the other big inert boxed dynamics, let alone some of the more esoteric systems from MBL, various new horn manufacturers. If the question is why anyone would spend X on a piece of gear, I think that's all relative, not only to the person's wealth, but their degree of passion/insanity whatever you want to call it. A lot of the uber high end stuff owned by some of the folks here is well past that mark and while they may have money, they aren't super rich. The folks I've known that fit into the crazy money crowd for the most part aren't hi-fi nuts. They may have a good system, but nothing over the top. And often, have lots of other passions, collecting art, cars, whatever. I just don't see an argument here- if you told me you heard it and it sucked for 130k dollars, that would be a different story. |
remember too, we are looking at worldwide sales, and Rockport has a significant presence in Asia and elsewhere..,.probably most won't be sold in USA...and again, we are discussing their second most expensive speaker, and many companies make much more expensive ones...so Yeah, how do they sound...seems no one commenting has ever actually heard one. .. |
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