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…
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 |
@hoodjem I was about to say something similar. Let's face it, the absolute high end doesn't sell many products. Expect a handful of sales every year. I truly believe that buyers are clueless and rely on emotion and gut feeling when buying expensive audio equipment. Let me put it this way: in a room full of $100k speakers, the $50k speaker will seem inferior based on price and expected value alone (even if it performs better). So manufacturers may by nudging buyers into spending more money that way. Just create a very extensive, overly complicated line of speakers. Make the prices exponential. This is really a car salesman tactic. You expect to spend $20k on a car, you walk out of the dealer with a $35k vehicle because it was on sale and because most other cars in the showroom were around $50k. Your brain accepts higher prices because you perceive higher prices at the dealership. This applies to eveything: furniture, mattresses, kitchens, bikes etc... It's not unreasonable to assume that flagship products drive up the prices for lower-tiered products by association. In other words, drive up the averages.
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