Hi Whatthe,
That’s great that you were able to make your computer and save money. It sounds like you made a nice server. Lampizator’s founder, Lukasz Fikus encourages people, if they are capable, to try and make their own.
But think about it: from a commercial standpoint, in order to remain profitable and stay in business, you not only need to cover your cost of materials, but pay for land, labor, capital and have some built-in profit. Assuming your server was comparable (which maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t), you’ve inadvertently proven a point: your costs in materials alone are 50 percent the price of the Super Komputer.
In order for a company like Lampizator or others to be profitable and stay in business, provide the points for dealers, etc. over the long haul there needs to be a markup like that -- or better.
I was talking with a friend who works in Quality Assurance for Foster, which has a limited line of speakers it sells (i.e., Fostex) and does a great deal of OEM business (including Harmon Kardon, Pioneer, Bose and others, as well as automobile companies; he had been in Australia, I believe, talking with Subaru, whom they will be providing (if not already) car speakers for) and, in passing, he mentioned that the material costs of building a decent car are roughly $12,000. Then, you need to factor in your labor, capital, profit margin, etc.. So, you pay anywhere from $20,000 to $35,000 or more for something that cost roughly $12,000 in materials (the more expensive ones use some nicer materials, but the incremental cost to them is maybe a few thousand dollars, if that, while the consumer pays oodles and oodles more). When I had a basic marketing class, the difference in production costs between a J-car and a Cadillac was only a couple thousand but the markup was significantly higher. Go figure!
So, keeping in mind the prices for top performing speakers, amplifiers, and other audio gear (where $5,000 speakers are considered budget buys, used Pass amplifiers go for $4,000 - $5,000, etc.), for those who are not willing or able to build a very good music server but demand top flight audiophile performance, the Komputer is actually a very good deal.
Coincidentally, my lowly Toshiba laptop handled DSD files, too, but trust me, it didn’t sound nearly as good as the Lampizator DSD Komputer!
Cheers,
Juan
