Sopra No.2 Overpriced?

So, lots of off topic points I want to contribute to.

The quality of products made in China is directly proportional to the parent company’s willingness to control that quality and partner with the manufacturer. Very high quality and crap comes out of Chinese assembly lines, all of it determined by the buyers.

The productivity of the American worker continues to go up while salaries have remained flat for the past 15 years.

Having said that, my own secret calculations say that the High End prices are around 10x the driver costs. Some are better, like Lawrence Audio, and some are much worse. I would put Focal at a much higher rate, plus they benefit from really cheap cabinets and inexpensive in-house drivers. The Magico S1 Mk II which I am not a fanboy for (nor particularly upset by) is all aluminum, and has 2 very nice Scanspeak drivers with proprietary cones and moderately expensive Mundorf crossovers. Then you have some one like Bose selling a 5.1 system out of 6 plastic boxes and $2 drivers for over $1,500. Amazing. :)

Really interested in purchasing a pair, good bang for the buck or overpriced when compared to speakers at similar price point?

I don't know.  Are the other speakers in their price range they are designed to compete with overpriced too? 

Only the market will make that determination.  If they are perceived to be overpriced, or sound bad, they won't sell,  Focal will then have to make a decision to lower the price to attract more buyers or discontinued the model altogether because they made an Edsel.  Time will tell.

I do know that my dealer has one pair in red, for demos.  He tells me if you want orange, there is a 6 week wait.  If this is true, then that tells me Focal has priced this speaker right and it is being bought by its intended target market.  At least the orange ones anyway.

I believe the Sopra line is made in France, although its likely that some components are sourced from other countries.

As for the value aspect, Focal stated this speaker would provide the best value in high end audio. While it may very well be one the better values, not quite sure I would have given it the class leader. In my book, it would require it to either meet or exceed all speakers nearby or below its pricing. Something I feel it doesn't accomplish across the board.

Even with that said, this level of performance cost considerably more just few years back. This progress is certainly very welcome and I'm glad they create more than statement pieces.

Now it depends on if you enjoy their sound profile and if works in synergy with your room, gear, and listening preferences.

Eric,
Back in the late 70's, early 80's I worked in high end audio, back when Yamaha was a "more exclusive" brand.  One week, some folks from Yamaha corporate visited and one of their chief engineers said that, to put a model into production, it had to have a retail price that was 10x their cost of the components and assembly costs.  On the surface, that sounds like a HUGE markup, but you'd need to add the costs for R&D, packaging, shipping, promotion, service support, and of course, some profit for the local distributor and dealer.  At the time, Yamaha had "44 points" in it (if you paid your bills promptly), for the dealer, an item with a $100 retail price cost the store $56 (plus shipping).  Speakers typically had at least "50 points" in them, some even more.

Ejr:

That makes perfect sense to me. :)  Now imagine if you could build your own, what kind of speakers you could afford. :)

Best,


Erik