Takedown of pricey servers, streamers OCD HiFi guy

“.....he is selling you a Ferrari to drive through a gated retirement village at 25MPH”. 
@djones51,

Thanks for the wonderful analogy. If you’re thinking it then you still have time to act. Cause when you get to that retirement village stage, you will regret not buying a Ferrari. Life is too short to be settling for a smartcar 😂

The point is you’re paying for someone’s time, research, knowledge and know-how. Not to forget the opportunity cost as well as the cost of running a business. Actual cost of parts is a small part of the equation.

And this sort of thing is not just limited to the audio business. Early adopters are willing to pay more for products that are sold in a niche or emerging market segment. Most audiophiles understand that they are paying a lot for what others might conceive as incremental improvements, or even no improvement if your system is not capable.

If you cannot afford it, or don’t see the value, that’s fine. Save your money. But, let’s not disparage innovators and risk takers who are trying to move the needle. And be open to the fact that there’s a lot of experimentation going on in the digital audio world. Some might not bear any fruit, and that’s to be expected. Doesn’t necessarily mean these companies are fleecing unsuspecting customers. That’s the price we pay for progress.

I have never met anyone that I agreed with everything on every opinion of everything. I just try and find the logic in everyone’s opinion, and correlations with consensus and/or my own subjectivity.
 OCD HIFI Guy, who apparently had a background in the manufacture of hifi gear, has merely pointed out that it appears to him that some of the margins of profit seem to be disproportionate to costs of doing business. He is reporting on apparent greed and value. He’s not necessarily questioning value to quality of sound ratio to cost. He acknowledges that there may be quality of craftsmanship, for better reliability, ease of maintenance, or pride of ownership that transcends the value to sound ratio, that there might be exclusive research, tooling and manufacturing costs. What’s the problem with that?

This thread contains a couple different sub-themes.

There is a debate over the facts which OCD guy uses to justify his claim that some streaming devices are overpriced. This debate hinges on what is involved, mechanically or in R&D, with these devices.

Then there is another debate over how much a manufacturer is justified in charging for a product. Some argue that they can charge whatever they want if customers will pay that. Some see this as fine because of the psychological satisfaction some people get from just buying things they feel good about, even if they don’t really know why they should feel good about it. Others disagree and see this as problematic because customers are being fooled by marketing claims or techno mumbo jumbo. They not getting what they expect (sonic excellence) by paying what they pay.

I suppose there’s no single right way to look at it. For my own part, I see every audio purchase as part of the larger audio budget that I feel contained by. If I spend unnecessarily on a product (e.g. because I’ve become convinced by the marketing even though the technology doesn’t make a significant sonic difference), then those are $$s I do not have to spend in another area. Many on this forum has advocated for cables or vibration controls or room treatments that I have not yet acquired. If I spend too much of my budget on a streamer that is overpriced, ultimately that subtracts from what I can spend on other elements of the system which could make a bigger difference. And that reduces *my* overall satisfaction more than the bling factor of a $20k streamer. Just how I see it.

There is never going be any single consensus on what is a fair value of a given product. What I consider of high value (R&D, build quality, proprietary circuits, app interface, features) others may consider them as frivolous or marketing gimmicks. There are folks here who are perfectly happy with raspberry pi’s or Node 2i and others with offerings from Lumin, Auralic and Aurender.

A product with dealer / distributor network comes padded with markups for dealer. It’s up to you, to either pay full price or negotiate a deal. One guy pointed out in this thread about OCD Hifi guy own brand (Verastarr) of cables with high price tag. Look at some of the brands he is selling and tell me if you don’t find excessive padding for resellers or as others have pointed out excessive ‘greed’.

I am with @arafiq, If you cannot afford it, or don’t see the value, that’s fine. Save your money and buy something else. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to choose from, be happy and enjoy the music!

Peace!