Robb Report

Freediver, lets look at a few bit of reality.

Robb report features really expensive things that the wealthy or ultra wealthy think are cool and yes there are items where the cost goes up for the performance that you get.

Is a Bugatti Veryon worth $3.3 million? Is it 10 times better than a Lamborgini? Could it also be that the price of the Bugatti has a lot to do with the rarity of the car and the expense to recoup some of their research and development costs?

The reality is that there are very expensive things that are really good and maybe woth the money and there are items that are outragously expensive are they worth the money that is for the buyer to decide.

There are always products that push the boundaries.

As Axpona heard a $600k system that was freaking amazing and worth the money while we heard a few that were just as expensive that weren’t anywhere as magical and a few that were $200k-300k that were just marginal for the price tag.

There will always be products that push the boundaries in both directions.

Part of the fun in any industry is the lunatic fringe products that are just so cool that somebody took a design to insane ends.

If you consider how rare some of these pieces are and how limited the production runs are, and the cost to build some of these products the high price tag starts to make sense.

Remember that a high end device that makes music can be a complicated device with lots of expensive parts, now consider that a Hermes leather bag is selling for $30k for a piece of nicely finished leather and you will start to see that a $225k, pair of speakers may not be that bad of a deal after all.

Live and let live, if you have the disposable income to afford such lovely luxury goods God Bless you and have fun.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Best beer is said to be made by some Belgian monks. It is not the most expensive and it is not always easy to get. They control the prices and do not allow the stores where it is sold to raise them without their permission. Those damn fools do not maximize the profit, but again the beer is quite expensive, and people sometimes stand in line to buy it.
They pervert Yankee style capitalism, that's for sure, but I sympathize with their attitude.
No car is worth $3.3 million and no person earning his/her money will buy it.

I think Dave and Troy should buy the new $600,000 system they heard at Axpona, then sell it used and report back to us what proceeds were left. That would be very telling about margins of many high end manufacturers and dealers alike.  Because, after less than a year, the pricing typically  depreciates by about 50% of the original MSRP. regresses to the mean and is sold for 1/2 (or less) than the original MSRP.  

Inna, nothing in life is "worth" anything. Worth is what we as humans subscribe to.

Is a diamond worth thousands of dollars or tens of thousands? Is a rare Patek Phillipe watch $100k or more?

The market determines what people will pay for. In the case of the Veryron the car's rarity and extreme performance drive up its price.

One of our clients let us drive his Lamborgini which was a $200k plus car and frankly it wasn't that great, way too low, felt like a go cart, the interior was amazing it was a fun toy but in our mind his fully tricked out fully loaded Cadillac Henissey twin tubro was a much more exciting car and that car was nearly a 1/3rd the price of the Lambo.

As per a person wealthy enough to afford a $3.3 million dollar car many o of those people made their fortunes themselves.

Micheal Bloomberg is  a multi billionare, he started from scratch, our client who is worth over a billion, came over to the US as an Immigrant and worked his way up the corporate ladder. Mark Cuban made it also through hard work, so these people would view themselves as both being rich, smart, hard working and having paid their dues to get where they are.

The surprising thing in high end audio is how some of the really expensive things are actually quite expensive to make and their high costs are actually more valid 

Liamowen, we wouldn't be buying a $600k system and selling it for 1/2 its price in a year that would be stupid. Resale value and cost have nothing to do with anything, and the truly rare ultra statement products like the Naim Statement amplifiers and a pair of Focal Grande Utopia Evo III are almost never seen on the used market. 

So if you have even $400k in your pocket you are not going to find these items, nor would a dealer sell such a system for that price, you are going to pay close to $600k and that is that the person who can afford such a system is going to find out that certain expensive and rare items actually do sell for and cost quite a lot to accquire.

Good luck finding a pair of the current Focal Grande Utopia Evo III or a pair of Naim Statment amplifiers used. Most of the people who are spending that kind of money don't move willy nilly in and out of such items. they do their research, hear such a system, pay the price and buy it.

If we had that kind of funds available we would have that system on display it was extraordinary

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ