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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…

128x128daveyf
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daveyf OP
2,885 posts
 

@patrickwilison   Clearly 'overpriced' is a relative term. But, I think we are not so much taking about an 'overpriced' item here, as one that is so costly that even the most well heeled a'phile will balk at the price...

Therefore, my OP was questioning whether the price asked by a high end manufacturer can actually ever be too high for them to sell any of the product that is touted as 'SOTA'?? 

 

Folks, if we look at the pricing points in high end, it seems if we take speakers as an example, the low price points for high end speakers seem to hover around $500 to $1000 ( Maggies, some Polks etc.,) and the ceiling seems to be around $1M or so, ( for Wilson Wamm's and a few others). At the ceiling point, we do not see speakers that are priced in the multi millions. ( $2M or more), yet! But, i wonder why, do these very same manufacturer's know what the threshold is to their maximum attainable price...or is it something else? 

grislybutter
3,270 posts
 

the average (audiophile) low end is $400 and the high end is 60K, based on ~70 brands. There are less than a few well known brands who make speakers for over a 100K. I would call them luxury priced, not overpriced

 

I think overpricing is more common in the jump from mid-fi to hi-fi, when the differences are not substantial but the price jump is

jl35
4,035 posts
 

Possibly the super priced speakers you refer to are all totally "custom" and not in a retail catalog...and clearly many $100,000+ speakers sell well and others do not...seems to have worked quite well for Rockport and Wilson over decades of sales...not so good for some others

grislybutter
3,270 posts
 

fun fact: the most expensive speakers are made in a region, a fairly straight line from Switzerland to the Netherlands.

hoodjem
19 posts
 

I imagine some audio manufacturers having an internal discussion--

"We can make it for $200, sell it for $500 and sell lots." 

"But, if we sell it for $500, no one will take it seriously as truly ’high end.’  Let’s price it at $5000 and call it our Statement product. Then we’ll sell even more."  

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