Takedown of pricey servers, streamers OCD HiFi guy

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!

lalitk,

I will never have any issue with whatever price someone wants to charge for something. Want to charge $500 for a cable, or $20,000 for a cable or streamer, I have no issue with that.

Now if you use wild or impossible claims to justify that $20K cable, then I see that as a problem. People equate high end audio to luxury goods sales, but no one is under any impression that a Vuitton bag of the same size as a Forever 21 bag will hold more stuff  (I reserve judgement on Tumi).

There are some that are totally appalled and offended that someone would or even could spend $20K on a cable when people are starving, but I think most are just offended by the ludicrous claims.

"Is Laufer even in business?"

It was in November 2019 and their website looked the same. At that time, they exhibited at an audio show.

They did play music from the Memory Player and I have no idea how much it contributed to the whole experience. However, I will admit that I enjoyed the sound in that room more than in any other room at any of two audio shows in those two or three weeks. I cannot say it was the most natural, most accurate, most whatever, except that it was what I liked the most. I suspect, without any real knowledge, that it was the speakers (The Note). Speaking of "performers being in the room". At the same time, it was the first time I have ever been exposed to that kind of speakers so maybe all of them sound like that.

I wonder what the profit margin on those speakers is.

Seems I have some studying to do beyond reading the posts in this thread.  Computer grung is real and measurable.  Soundings in Denver about 10 years ago was previewing a music server that if memory serves me correctly Boulder Audio helped them design.  Price point at the time was $1500.00 running Microsoft and dBpoweramp for 1tb of storage.  Stick in a CD and the system did the rest.
So just what is that last 10% worth.