$39,000.oo Aavik Acoustics U-380 Class-D integrated amplifier


https://www.stereophile.com/content/aavik-acoustics-u-380-integrated-amplifier#comment-594175

Here we go again, Covid-19 is everywhere

$39,000.oo
Uses the Pascal M-Pro2
https://www.pascal-audio.com/product/m-pro2/

That is also used in the $15K Rowland Contiuum-2
https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/pics/jeff_rowland_continuum_2_lar...

That’s also used in the $900 Red Dragon S500 amp
https://ibb.co/VmvR0sD

That are used in a $300 subwoofer plate amp
https://ibb.co/JjnrzXw

That all come from  China, that sold these modules on Alibaba a year ago for $100!! just like these.
https://ibb.co/NWnRPbJ


What would you think the profit margin is on this amp?

Cheers George


georgehifi
Personally that is too much money for any amp much less a Class D which is supposed to be about more for less but sounds like it competes sound wise with comparable products so why beat on this particular product? It’s an integrated amp with dac and phono so the amp is not the whole story.
Lets consider, for a minute, the First Watt SIT-3.

What are you paying for?

The Black box? The handful of components in it? Nope, you are paying for the creativity and design skill of Nelson Pass. Never heard a SIT 3, want to badly and suspect I would like it.

The whole, when done properly, is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Hence my earlier comment regarding artwork.

Material costs in a painting? Nominal. Perceived value? Sometimes, astronomical.

How many in this thread have actually heard the 39K pretty black box?
Lets consider, for a minute, the First Watt SIT-3.

What are you paying for? The Black box? The handful of components in it?

Big difference don't even know how you can compare.

A Nelson Pass (god) designed black box, still multiple x less $, with still more parts costing inside.
Not what come down to a Chinese $100 subwoofer plate amp module, built here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZCxCg-QWDQ&feature=youtu.be

Cheers George
Look let’s get to the crux of the matter. No piece of hifi electronics costing $40k, the cost of a decent luxury car, is a good value.

Hopefully stuff costing that much at least is capable of sounding good to go along with the bling because lots of gear for a fraction of the cost does.
Maybe by pushing the price, for some ugly looking item of class D amplification to boot, into the stratospheric regions makes sense to some marketing folk?
Will it work?
Maybe some 'old age barrel matured connoisseurs' will show us?
😘 
Michélle