The Snob Appeal Premium


I have learned that speakers are a typical victim of "Designer Label Syndrome".  Supposedly an $8 billion a year market (hard to believe) speakers are fairly simple beasts with little substantive improvements over the last 50 years. Ever since Paul Klipsch ( a character in his own right) read the Bell Labs 1934 papers and revolutionized speaker technology there have been few similar revolutionary improvements to the speaker. So- if you are an enterprising manufacturer of speakers (which are relatively cheap to build) how do you extract more and more money from the consumer ?  Answer: Synthetic demand driven by cachet' !  Like a pair of Louis Vuitton sneakers @ $650 a pair vs. New Balance runners @ 60/pr. It's snobby bragging rights stuff I'm describing here- perceived vs. actual value in a product. 

Here's an anecdotal example: 

I recently set out to build a high end mid-fi system (ARC preamp, power amp, Dac 9) for a large room "main house" (not a listening room) system. The goal was big, full, rich sound in a room full of furniture, chow dogs, kids and untreatable other things like 20 foot ceilings, multiple openings such as a balcony to the upstairs bedrooms, etc. Basically an audiophile's nightmare. 

I auditioned a number of speakers- Perlistens supported by JL Fathom subs, B&W Signatures, Bryston Model Ts, Vienna Acoustics Mahlers and Bethovens. IMO all of these are somewhat similar towers (except the Perlistens). The price point was not as important as the sound- given the limitations of the application. 

In the shopping for new or used I found a number of odd prices. The most unusual finding was a brand new set of Model Ts here in Audiogon advertised for $4K with a 20 year factory warranty. The dealer had one slide around of his hand truck and it put white paint smears on a corner of the Boston Cherry cabinet. Hmmm- 4 grand vs. 12 grand for a small fixable cosmetic flaw? I bought them. They sound fantastic. Some elbow grease and a furniture marker pen made the flaw vanish. 

I asked the dealer (Paul Kraft in Easton PA- great guy BTW) why the Audiogon Blue Book for a Model T was so low. His answer was "snob appeal". Apparently there is a big bragging rights  premium paid for having the UFO looking B&W Signatures vs what the snobs call the Bryston Model Ts "Axioms in a fancy suit".  I later learned that there are some prominent reviewers who refuse to listen to A/B speaker comparisons behind a silk curtain unless they know what brand is being scrutinized. To me that means "payola". 

Do the Model Ts sound better to me than the Mahlers, Bethovens, B&Ws? No. But they don't sound worse either (in my application). Do the above sound $8,000-$14,000 better than the Brystons in the listening rooms of the dealers? IMO NO WAY. To be fair price/value does color my perception much like a bottle of $40 Rumbauer Zin tastes better to me than $200 Silver Oak expense account wine. 

I'm guessing this post will anger brand snobs and garner snarky comments because their taste in sound is different than mine. Although this missive is really about personal perceptions of value v. sound I found my education on pricing fascinating and I feel great about finding amazing value in the brand new Model T's that needed 30 minutes of TLC to be at home in my family room. 

Moral of the story: Try em before you buy em, and look for value. It's fun and rewarding with no buyers remorse. 

128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xyesiam_a_pirate
Post removed 

@mikelavigne 

I live in New England. I have a C4S and drove it every day. A real SUV. Now I swap it out on occasion for a TRX, my new sports car. Scares the hell out of everyone else on the road (except the cops). 

The only time I am not listening to music is when I am sleeping. Most of the listening is with my shop system, two pairs of old Mirage speakers with Adcom electronics and a bunch of big machines. 

There is no multi six figure loudspeaker I care to own. I have never heard a set sound as good or image as well as line source, dipole ESLs. Most multi six figure speakers can certainly go louder. My TRX can leave my old C4S in the dust. The C4S will murder the TRX on the track. 

The most important and expensive part of any system is the room it sits in. A bad room can make the best speakers sound like sh-t. I was recently in the theater of a very wealthy person who was not an audiophile. It was gorgeous with walnut wainscoting, outrageous wallpaper and leather theater seating in 3 rows. He was showing me how great it sounded with a hi def digital copy of The Wall. It was very hard not to laugh. The panels in the wainscoting were buzzing away. The builder did not bother to dampen them. 

@wturkey 

From what I understand only the heat sinks and covers are made by chinese prisoners because no one in the US makes them. Do you have anything to back a suggestion of more than this because you are obviously suggesting their entire components are chinese. I would pointout that the sprout is chinese and therefore not what I would consider real PSAudio.

This thread reminds me of advice I received from a veteran attorney as I was starting out on my own many years ago...

"Doctors at cocktail parties never brag about how cheap their lawyers are. Charge as much as the market can support."

All of the talk of box materials is interesting.  I do like metal boxes.  On the other hand, if I wanted to make a completely rigid box I could go to Home Depot and get some MDF and porcelain floor tiles and make a box that'd be just as rigid for not much money.  Make the MDF box slightly big, cut the tiles to size and caulk them to the inner walls.  That's not going to let anything out or flex.  Any company that wanted complete rigidity but not the hassle of metal working could do it.