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Design a $60,000 Speaker - Start here

Hi Everyone,

Just thought for interest I'd talk about one of the most expensive woofers in the 10-12" varieties, the Accuton AS250-88-552 CELL, actually an 11" aluminum honeycomb sandwich construction. Retail price at hobbyist volumes: $1,400, each.

In addition to the exotic material, the suspension and motor assembly are also worthy of note, as they leave a very large amount of unobstructed space directly behind the dome, allowing it to behave most ideally like a piston.

So putting this together into say a modest 3 way with all drivers from the same company and of the same level, I estimate around $6k / pair of speakers for the drivers alone. Add the normal markups, and this is a $60k speaker.

Will it sound any good? I have no idea. I just wanted to share with you all where some of these speakers that cost as much as a luxury sedan get their prices from.  Obviously, my estimates are rough, and go up and down. The point of this is just a general expose.

Best,


E

erik_squires
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,316 posts
 
This would be a great MBA program exercise.
Off the top of my head, major cost categories to consider:

R&D (including any licensing fees)
Raw materials (drivers, electronics, cabinetry etc.)
Manufacturing
Warehousing
Distribution
Promotion (advertising, dealer incentives, etc.)
Warranty support
Financing (unless the business owner is independently wealthy, there’s going to be a note to pay off! ;-)

Each of these major categories can be further subdivided and refined.

Ttl. Costs/(1-Target Profit Margin*)=Selling Price

*as decimal per cent
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
60k??

how much are Sound Labs these days?

or the new Quads?

or Kii??

or cheap out and buy 20.7 Maggies

will a 60k speaker really sound better than the above?  will the result be room dependant?   or are you just trading one distortion for another?

you could buy one of the 4 above and then use the rest to build a facia with a $60,000 sticker on it...
bpoletti
1,554 posts
 
Designing well-braced cabinets that work within the constraints of baffle-step is one thing.  The use of top-notch drivers is another point.  But it has been my personal experience that developing a good crossover is probably 75% of the effort and 90% of the actual time spent developing the system. 

A truly wonderful system capable of a very wide dynamic and frequency response range can be developed using a total of around $1200 of drivers, maybe less.  The crossover components will likely cost around $400 - $600 if simple crossovers are used.  But the crossover MUST take into account all the other facets of the system.  Voicing the speakers and maintaining timing and "pulse coherence" will be the biggest hurdle. 
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,976 posts
 
2  European drivers per aluminum cabinet.  Charge 60k 
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,316 posts
 
The point of my cost breakdown post is to illustrate that hardware is only one cost component going into the price of a speaker. Hardware won’t necessarily be the main determinant or best predictor of final cost or the price performance ratio of the unit.
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