Hi jay_douglas_287@msn.com to some degree you are correct but only for certain parts and materials. In 1970, Teflon parts were astronomical in price- about $1,000 apiece in round numbers, today a Teflon part is a fraction of that. But Caddock resistors and other similar parts did not even exist back then and are quite pricy today. Some Caddock resistors retail for well over $25.00 each. We could use 3 cent resistors and 35 cent coupling caps but the gear would sound bad!
One must also figure the cost of labor and the cost of small manufacturing. If you want something that is stamped out by the 10,000s of units in China, it might be cheap. But if a product is made by hand with proper materials in the US, and only ten of them are made at a time you are simply going to have to pay for it. Its a good bet that the stamped out unit is not going to sound as good too, because by definition less care goes into its existance. You do get what you pay for (although there are shills in any industry).
When I designed our product line I started with the idea of putting the dollars into the performance rather then the cosmetics and that is our ideal today. But we pay the price- often our products are not taken seriously because it *is* less expensive then the competition that it beats! and because we don't have a 1" thick gold panel on the equipment. At the same time though, our stuff is not cheap, because we are only interested in an assult on state of the art, so we have custom built switches, filter caps, resistors and capacitors- this stuff costs very dear even in large quantities. Yes, we could build with lesser materials and parts but now we are not being the best that we can be- which is not what high end audio is all about (hopefully each of us in the industry believes in what we are doing and are building the best stuff that we know how).
If high end audio is shrinking, it is not due to prices, so much as it has to do with public awarness, which is a subject of a different thread.
One must also figure the cost of labor and the cost of small manufacturing. If you want something that is stamped out by the 10,000s of units in China, it might be cheap. But if a product is made by hand with proper materials in the US, and only ten of them are made at a time you are simply going to have to pay for it. Its a good bet that the stamped out unit is not going to sound as good too, because by definition less care goes into its existance. You do get what you pay for (although there are shills in any industry).
When I designed our product line I started with the idea of putting the dollars into the performance rather then the cosmetics and that is our ideal today. But we pay the price- often our products are not taken seriously because it *is* less expensive then the competition that it beats! and because we don't have a 1" thick gold panel on the equipment. At the same time though, our stuff is not cheap, because we are only interested in an assult on state of the art, so we have custom built switches, filter caps, resistors and capacitors- this stuff costs very dear even in large quantities. Yes, we could build with lesser materials and parts but now we are not being the best that we can be- which is not what high end audio is all about (hopefully each of us in the industry believes in what we are doing and are building the best stuff that we know how).
If high end audio is shrinking, it is not due to prices, so much as it has to do with public awarness, which is a subject of a different thread.