WILSON AUDIO/ cost vs. value

For those, Mr. Wilson's achievement is notable whither or not you like his speakers, demeaning Wilson's serves no purpose whatsoever.

Holenneck - Say what you will, the X-2 is still only a pair of speakers and he's got them priced like an S-Class Mercedes. I get a big disconnect when I look at that comparison. Consider what goes into that car compared to what is in the Wilson speakers. Sure volume is a factor but so is the difference in tooling and parts count and labor. Talk about man hours, the Benz must be 100 times as labor intensive with 100 times as many parts and a reputation for quality that outstrips Wilson by many years and several orders of magnitude.
For these reasons I continue to ignore justifications for his pricing. He charges that much because people will pay it, not because his cost of manufacturing requires it. That argument is illogical.

I agree with you, people will pay 125k for speakers; they also pay that much for a wrist watches.

If you simply go on a cost to cost ratio, sure, the Mercedes makes more sense.

But we are talking about loudspeakers, and I believe there a more speakers over the 100k barrier than the x-2. Why aren’t we talking about them?

S-class Mercedes is to automobiles as Wilson x-2's is to audio?

That comparison isn’t even close!!!! There are cars that cost several times 125k, so Mercedes is actually an average priced luxury car; the x-2 is the king of the hill.

So to say that my argument is illogical is fine, but to look at it the way you are looking at is also illogical.

In the end, despite my argument I will never purchase a pair of x-2's unless a miracle occurs in my bank account, but i still respect Dave Wilson's products and the prices he chooses to sell them.

Holenneck -
I chose to use Wilson speakers in my analogy for two reasons.
First - I believe they are the highest profile offender although you are right about there being others. Secondly, Wilson is the topic of this thread.
You say there are cars that are more expensive than $125,000 and that makes my analogy "not even close". Illogical again.
The topic was prestige or pride of ownership or status. Mercedes wrote the book on that topic. Walk out your front door and start asking people what they think of when you say Wilson. Then try the same thing with Mercedes. This is where "not even close" will show up.

Not many people know that you can spend 125k on a pair of speakers. Plenty of people know and readly accept spending that kind of money on a car. Buying a 125k car is like buying a Watt Puppy 8 at 25k, buying a pair of x-2's is like buying a ferrari or some other super expensive car i dont know about.

I understand you will again disagree with me, i accept that you will do so, but the x-2 is a specialty speaker, mercedes are an everyday car, even the really expensive ones......