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Stratospheric audio gear prices

The more time I have under my belt pursuing quality audio, the more I realize that high audio gear prices have some basis in their quality. Yet there is a limit. When you buy a Ferrari the cost is high, but you can see the money involved in the design and parts. Many would argue that high quality audio gear is similar to the quality and design of a hyper-car. But when you look a the sheer quantity an complexity of this kind of car, there is no piece of audio gear that compares. To me, a piece of audio gear that costs as much as even an inexpensive car is just a manufacturer cashing in because they can. Can you imagine what audio manufacturers would want to charge for a piece of audio gear that was the size and weight of a car? Like $100 million.  I believe it just drives the whole market up and we end up getting a little bit suckered. This is all perhaps a little overstated. I guess I just want to shame audio manufacturers. I do understand that they are not charities, or here for the betterment of mankind. If you are not frustrated by this, good for you.  Here is a quote from a book about marketing. The reference is a victim of link rot. Nevertheless it has common information. 
  

"Premium Pricing

Premium pricing is the practice of keeping the price of a product or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. The practice is intended to exploit the (not necessarily justifiable) tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation or represent exceptional quality and distinction . A premium pricing strategy involves setting the price of a product higher than similar products . This strategy is sometimes also called skim pricing because it is an attempt to "skim the cream" off the top of the market. It is used to maximize profit in areas where customers are happy to pay more, where there are no substitutes for the product, where there are barriers to entering the market, or when the seller cannot save on costs by producing at a high volume. It is also called image pricing or prestige pricing.

 

Luxury has a psychological association with price premium pricing. The implication for marketing is that consumers are willing to pay more for certain goods and not for others. To the marketer, it means creating a brand equity or value for which the consumer is willing to pay extra. Marketers view luxury as the main factor differentiating a brand in a product category."

Source: Boundless. “Market Share.” Boundless Business Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 07 Feb. 2017 from https://www.boundless.com/business/textbooks/boundless-business-textbook/product-and-pricing-strateg...

ericrt
sokogear
1,088 posts
 
@unreceiveddogma - glad you agree about the system plateau for excellent sound, but who are we to say what is an insane amount of money to spend on audio? Some would consider $10-15K out of pocket on $20-25K worth of retail priced audio insane (including some of my relatives).

To someone with tens of millions or more in assets, I expect it is like you going out to a nice dinner, or even a lunch. Is that insane? It's a free country, and you can do whatever you want with your money, so long as it is legal.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
To those who think people are untitled to spend as much as they want on this stuff, I vehemently disagree: on a finite planet with finite and continually depleting resources, it is … shortsighted and selfish to spend insane amounts of dollars on audio gear.

No, what is shortsighted is to view human beings as nothing more than a tube through which food is consumed, and resources as mere matter. Our greatest resource is the human mind, and so the more humans the more resources. 

What you think is scarce is in fact more readily available than ever. A thousand years ago all the copper, iron, gold, etc was buried in the ground. Now it is almost all dug up and refined.  

Not that we need it so much any more, because there's that intelligence again, we have figured out much better more efficient ways of doing things. So for example there are more trees in N America today than in the 1800's because we are no longer cutting them down for heat and railroad tracks.  

There's roughly a bazillion examples like that, but people don't know because the ones who are constantly running around predicting the end of the world are noisy and get all the press. Doom and gloom sells. Meanwhile productivity rises, poverty declines, and The End continues to be moved ever father off into the never-quite-gets-here future.

stuartk
2,642 posts
 
"There's roughly a bazillion examples like that, but people don't know because the ones who are constantly running around predicting the end of the world are noisy and get all the press"

You can take heart, millercarbon, that all those pesky doom and gloom proclaiming scientists will most likely continue to be ignored, however much noise they might make. Standing on a branch while simultaneoulsy sawing away at it is not, to my mind, "intelligent", but perhaps we are working with different definitions. 

I should probably just keep my mouth shut about such things.  I try to not let political differences get in the way of getting along with others with whom I share common interests and most of the time I succeed but we all have our limits... in spite of our intelligence. 
sokogear
1,088 posts
 
I don't think the doom and bloomers are being ignored. It's all over the media constantly.

You have to really read closely what scientists say when they use words like predictions, assumptions, etc. and not the spin doctors who can take the most clear statements and change their meaning.

The best ones are measured and not panicky. The people on different sides of the issue are the more extremists trying to convince the "others" of the their position. Movie stars, Qanoners, the Squad, climate deniers....they are all over the place.

In almost all cases, the extremes are too extreme, and it takes the sensible people to take ALL points into account and see the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. Things are never as good or as bad as the media says - remember if everything is OK and not worrisome, no one watches.

We need more politicians and representatives without the "us vs. them" mentality. Pink Floyd knew this back when they wrote DSOTM.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
That would explain, matter of fact it's all dark.
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