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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
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.
ps
746 posts
 
The cost of whatever, the value of nothing.
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
953 posts
 
Millercarbon, regarding your comment about forest, that’s an assertion you will have to back up with a citation.

I assert that you are flat out wrong. I can back that up. Here it is:


https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/library/brochures/docs/2000/ForestFactsMetric.pdf
and as any general Contractir will tell you, they quality of today’s lumber is significantly inferior to that of 100 years ago. When I did a energy retrofit of my 1850 townhouse, I made sure to re-use as much of the old growth wood in the home as possible.


As for everyone else who thinks it’s none of anyone’s business how much someone spends on something, that’s an ideologically grounded assertion that 98% of science disputes, and that Mother Earth herself is rejecting almost everywhere we look these days. I’ll cite but one example: decades ago, my family used to travel by auto from NJ to St Louis every year to visit my mom’s dad. We’d stop every 300 miles or so for gas, and at every stop we would wash dozens of bugs off the windshield. Last summer, I drove 300 miles from Newburgh NY to Buffalo.


Not. One. Bug.


Pollinating bees are in steep decline.


mankind has to learn to live within its means. That includes audio systems. Mother Earth doesn’t need us: she will simply replace us with another species.
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