Like beauty, art, and a good movie, isn’t overpricing in the eye if the beholder?
Is it possible for a high end manufacturer to overprice their goods?
Having just read the interesting and hyperbole laden review by RH of the new Rockport Orion speakers in the latest issue of The Absolute Sound, one thing struck me..
is it possible in the high end for a manufacturer to overprice their product ( doesn’t have to be a speaker, but this example comes to mind)? I ask this, as the Orion is priced at $133k! Yes,a price that would probably make 99% of hobbyists squirm. Yet, the speaker now joins a number of competitors that are in the $100k realm.
To that, this particular speaker stands just 50.3” tall and is just 14.3” wide…with one 13” woofer, one 7” midrange and a 1.25” beryllium dome ( which these days is nothing special at all…and could potentially lead to the nasties of beryllium bite).
The question is…given this speakers design and parts, which may or may not be SOTA, is it possible that this is just another overpriced product that will not sell, or is it like others, correctly priced for its target market? Thoughts…
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@russ69 Thanks for pushing me!
Well-placed irony. That said, one thing which is true about the wealthy, and non-wealthy to a large degree, is that happiness is largely measure in relative social position, not material riches. People buy eye candy and expensive things in large part to position themselves with others in their stratum. Part of the audio market is serving that need, while also throwing in a lot of nice audio parts and research in the process. |
WT audio sounds the most natural and closest to the original music than any other audio system. There is a big gap between WT audio sound and 2nd best audio sound. WT is just a different league from every other sound systems. Until somebody makes the better sound, only Hi-end audio in the world is WT audio. Alex/Wavetouch audio |
I have always wondered what some of the really high end manufacturers expectations are w/ the really pricey stuff in terms of actual number of units sold. I suspect some of these products are intended to create or maintain a manufacturer's reputation so they can sell their more reasonably priced offerings & not really intended to sell well themselves. The hope for many of us is that the technology & concepts they develop in creating these outstanding products is that some it can trickle down to more reasonably priced things & more people can benefit from them. As for the actual price of things, it's all a matter of point of view. I suspect the general public would think that spending even $5K on a pair of loudspeakers is crazy & would not ever consider it but to many here on this forum, that's basically the bare bones starting point for anything decent. The same goes for cars, bicycles, cameras whatever. For some, part of the fun is trying to get close to the sound quality of a top system for a lot less $ using our experience w/ tweeking, set up, room acoustics & used gear as well. If you work hard for your money, you deserve to spend it anyway you enjoy. If that means donating to charities or buying a $100K sound system, to each their own.
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