Has anyone heard the SAT XD1

daveyf

Pricing to the stratosphere is connected to pursuing the state of the art...how??

Striving for high performance often costs money.

Cleeds, striving for high performance always costs money, but there is money and then there is money...so how much is too much??
I'm with lewm on this, to me...there is a principal involved here. Simple as that.

@lewm I just wondered if someone had heard or seen it. Or even just heard about it.

But the discussion about if there should be hifi components prices so high the "are in the ether!" is interesting. I personally like that someone out there is pushing the boundaries of what can be done. That it costs much is more of a side effect. Of course I hope they make cheaper things later with trickle-down tech, or that other brands get inspired and creates almost as good but much cheaper components.

@headphonedreams  IMO, the question is not whether someone should be pushing the boundaries of what can be done, but whether the result should be connected to some kind of value proposition. Or, whether it is simply acceptable to place the result in front of the consumer with what would, on the face of it, appear to be a simple money grab. That is entirely my point when it comes to the principle aspect. 

@daveyf
The value proposition is very straightforward - for the customer to own something unique and expensive. Most wealthy folk assume that if you pay more you get a better product, particularly when it comes to technilogical based products.

For the manufacturer it is a very simple calculation - can you make more by selling fewer, more exclusive, items at a higher price.

This is the inverse of the Levi Jeans saga when they almost went bust lauching a high end clothing. Their value proposition was cheap, rugged clothing, not consonant with high end suits.


The barrier to making these expensive products more affordable exists in the body of this forum - the forum is full of folk who want to believe their clapped out 70’s audio product ( think direct drive TT here ) that cost a nickel in a garage sale is the greatest audio product ever made and can compete with anything made today, particularly when they have added their own unique take on snake oil. You know them, "when I stuck some Wrigleys pepperment chewing gum on the headshell, my 1983 Grace 707 with the wonky bearings blew away an SAT tonearm". 

In a shrinking upper end 2 channel audio market the skinflints are killing off whats left of any potential market for innovative product at a "reasonable price".