Gorgeous! Happy to see Dan and his company doing well.
New D'Agostino Monoblocks...$250,000
The new D’Agostino Relentless monoblocks cost $250,000 per pair.
They weigh in at 485 pounds.
1500 wpc @ 8 ohms... 3000 wpc @ 4 ohms... 6000 wpc @ 2 ohms.
Gorgeous looking amps for sure and I’m sure they perform like crazy.
http://dandagostino.com/products/relentless-monoblock.php
Be sure to invite me over when you take delivery of your pair.
They weigh in at 485 pounds.
1500 wpc @ 8 ohms... 3000 wpc @ 4 ohms... 6000 wpc @ 2 ohms.
Gorgeous looking amps for sure and I’m sure they perform like crazy.
http://dandagostino.com/products/relentless-monoblock.php
Be sure to invite me over when you take delivery of your pair.
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I'm sure they sound great, but I'd love to meet somebody who buys these only after careful sound comparison to alternatives. More likely, the typical buyer has the money where these don't dent their income and they like the looks. Dan knows the high end market. He has been smart enough to design very high bling into his products. |
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Relentless is also the name of Slayer's recent album, and they're doing one final tour. Dan got pushed out of Krell by some Wall Street sharpies and he's just trying to make a few bucks. The early glory days of Krell are gone. Class A and spartan chassis, but the heat roasted the electronics and the room. Now it's Bugatti overkill, fancy outside, same boring ideas inside. Dan is the anti-Shindo. |
I live just down the road from Dan and his shop in Cave Creek. I stopped one day a few months back unannounced just to pay my respects. His facility was clean enough to eat off the floor and he was extremely kind and gracious enough to give me a tour. I really hope to own his Lifestyle Digital piece some day. I hope he sells a ton of these and wish this man only success. |
These approx $30kusd in 1996 3 way Sony ESL’s were unobtainable to anyone but the Emperor of Japan and a few others. http://audio-heritage.jp/SONY-ESPRIT/speaker/ss-r10.html http://audio-heritage.jp/SONY-ESPRIT/speaker/ss-r10(1).jpg http://audio-heritage.jp/SONY-ESPRIT/speaker/ss-r10(3).jpg Cheers George |
I suppose D'Agostino components style in appearance appeals to those who would like something a bit flashy, different and racy (like a Ferrari sports car) so as to justify the expensive cost. While on the otherside of the coin in regard to creme de la creme HiFi you have the Naim Statement, (Pre & Power amps) which look huge, dark and solid engineered components, giving off a perception of utter seriousness, power and precision. The customers I suspect in both above brands will be from Russia, Asia, Arabia (who already own our top two football clubs in UK) and USA. Also our footballers from the Premiere league could easily afford such High end brands on atleast two weekly basis but I suspect they would not be interested in such specific HiFi. |
I’ve written a lot around this trend in pricing lately. I feel it greatly damages the hobby, and has resulted in all manner of things such as the hollowing out of the rank of audiophiles. That said, now that I’m living in Vancouver, I have no doubt he’ll sell them easily. Folks here lionize conspicuous consumption. In the several years I’ve spent time here, the sheer number of expensive cars (and whatever other luxury item you can imagine) has taken me aback. I can’t tell you how many of these brand new cars get repainted immediately (often before initial delivery), along with a lot of other customization. By this I mean, you take a $150K - $500K car, and immediately have it painted it a different color to suit you. I’ve asked a few people about it, and their answer is always, "Oh, well they did have 3 blues available. But none that I liked. So, I just ordered it in white / grey / black, and had it done up as I wanted." Along the lines of the vast wealth of this clientele, a manufacturer of very high-end turntables was a part of my audio group back in Philadelphia. He could only produce 6 tables a year, and had an 18 month waiting list. We figured raising prices would give him a bit of breathing room. In fact, it produced EXACTLY the opposite result. Today, the turntables now cost more than 4X as much, and the demand has risen a good deal more than it was a decade ago |
When the bubble finally implodes, and it will as it really needs to, all of this non-sense will vaporize and there will be no buyers at any price to take the used $250K amps off anyone’s hands. Really??? did anyone look at the internal photos of this amp? 6 blue electrolytic caps which probably cost $35 each. A custom toriod transformer which might have cost under a thousand bucks and some circuit boards with a few precision tolerance components on mil spec circuit boards. OK, the CNC machining on the billet aluminum and copper is nicely done, but come on. There is some serious profit margin in this and people with way too much money, more than they should have since they probably either stole it or earned it the old fashioned way, they inherited it; are spitting it out on fluff. It’s offensive to some of us. Sorry, just my opinion |
. slimkikins5...If a guy can afford $250k for a pair of amps, he really doesn't need to worry about resale value. Guys that buy Rolls Royces don't worry about resale value, because they already know that in 10 years, the car will be worth one eighth of its purchase price. People who buy this stuff have money to burn. |
If one has a high quality amp or amps with good design and not costing more than a small Honda (or motorcycle) and taking the extra step to de-oxidize the buss on the service panel and the breakers, I'll bet it will sound just as good. Limiting voltage drops under load due to oxidation will work wonders :) Your reasonably priced amps will sound just as good. |
I don't understand why anybody would feel uber-expensive amps would have a negative impact on anything. Many astonishingly great sounding items exist for those unwilling or unable to spend kilo bucks on an amp, and the comparison to Ferraris or a Rolls doesn't fly in audio, as high end cars out perform lessor brands in obvious ways. My current rig is the best sounding I've owned in over 50 years of being a musician and at least aware of high quality audio (jumped from my early 70s KLH Model 20 to a Denon-Boston acoustics to an Acurus-Vandersteen many years ago and piles of things in between), and my Schiit Freya preamp (700 bucks), hand made Dennis Had "Firebottle" amp (1000 bucks slightly used…which is obvious because it has its birthday on the bottom panel), 2 REL subs (200 bucks each), nice solid core cables (cheap Morrows replacing AQs, and sounding perfectly unobtrusive) were pretty seriously inexpensive items relative to much else out there that works well. I've bought and sold speakers and things I've replaced (often simply due to boredom) at enough of a profit to pay for new things (like my Klipsch Heresy III "Capital Edition" speakers at 1499 shipped). My reference for sound is mightily influenced by my experience in the "cat bird seat" at live shows I mix, and occasional visits to high end joints like Goodwin's to hear mega systems. The mega systems aren't in my well sorted gear pile home location so maybe that's a disadvantage, but although the Dags and Rockports and Boulders seem cool, my el-cheapo pile actually does sound better, in all ways. |
This subject has pretty much always been around comes up all the time. Outrageous priced cars, watches, houses, audio equipment, TVs, you name it. As long as capitalism exist, there will be products made that are for the "beautiful people", and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. As long as no one is twisting your arms and forcing you to buy, where's the problem. Some of us forget that most people think that we (audiophiles) are crazy anyway. They think that the equipment we purchase is stupidly expensive. So, there are levels above us. Where's the problem. I know people that are in the amp of the month club or the car of the month club. When some new fangled piece of equipment comes out, they just have to have it. I don't question their motivations. If they can afford it, more power to them!!! What it does do, is allow some high end equipment that could not afford or wouldn't think of purchasing because of the price, to be placed on the used market. Or better yet, they would contact me asking me to take something off their hands for a really good price. Something I've heard that was definitely better than what I owned, but would not think of coming out of pocket for, and now it's available to me for almost a steal, because they had to have the newest. Well, There are manufacturers out there that build for us or they build for the one percent. And even "us" is relative. Now if I listen to that equipment and it isn't better than mine, then I laugh and smile. But, if it is better, then, what can I say but wow. I've heard D'Agostino equipment. All I can say is wow. enjoy |
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This thread is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Most people in the world have trouble getting enough to eat, forget about buying a high-end stereo or even a car. So if ultra high-end stereo offends you, take a look in the mirror and realize that you are in the 1% on a global basis. What you spend on audio gear is just as offensive. I say live and let live. Let the rich buy their $250,000 amps, you own your car, nice house and high-end system without guilt and do something to end poverty. Pointing fingers at others does no one any good, as Bob Dylan learned a long time ago. |