Why the huge increase in the price of Sonus Farber Amanti G5 speakers.

@ghdprentice 

Cynical ? Certainly you’re not suggesting people that choose not to purchase a product are dumb. I would think a hearing preference would play a role, whether having the funds or not is a moot point. I am sure that selling a company does require the input from many but I’m also sure that the sale such as SF was a lucrative deal, satisfying most. Price gouging only works with commodities that are mandatory ?? That would cut out a huge percentage of the supposedly smarter population, unless one lives in a bubble the evidence is everywhere. 

? What does some supposedly heartmelting story about Audio Research have to do with sonus famrber jacking up the rates on their speaker? 

That the product is different but the principle is the same?

@ghdprentice is the only person in this thread or anyone else on this forum who has the slightest clue about how things actually work.  Without profits businesses fold, private entities in niche markets especially. The biggest overhead in any business is labor and benefits. The people who build SF speakers are extremely skilled craftsmen that are for the most part impossible to replace. Perhaps you’d want them built by robots which after the initial investment and those costs were amortized over several years doing so, would make them cheaper and more profitable which would provide more individuals for the unemployment lines and more burden on their fellow taxpayers.

So many of you have this sense idealism and entitlement that only concerns your own wallets that inevitably results in a decline of your quality of life not to mention all of you who don’t want to pay for music appreciation in their local schools because they consider it a needless expense and they don’t want their taxes to go up. Remember crap rolls downhill!

You sure are cynical. 

While there are a few companies that attempt and get away with charging "excessive" prices for their products, they are far between. Certainly not in tiny markets in highly discretionary markets. If folks don’t think the speakers are worth it, then they don’t buy them. Also, folks buying speakers in the $30K - $100k range are smarter than the average population, not dumber. 

I would think it more likely that a marketing person(s) from Sonus Faber / Bose did a complete analysis of the SF product lines and of the competitions. Considered the sonic characteristics, craftsmanship, global demographics, production costs and forecasted costs, and probably the Bose guidelines for profitability. They would have got together the COO, CFO, VP of Sales... probably the entire executive staff. The marketing team would have spent several hours explaining their findings and recommendations. The VP of Sales would complain endlessly about how they would not longer be able to sell the volumes they had committed to in the annual plan with these price increases. Everyone would look to purchasing to get long term contracts on raw materials to stabilize the material input costs. Anyway, I can go on and on. This is how it works. A huge amount of research and heated discussion by very savvy people trying to make sure they stay in business and make some money. 

Price gouging only works with commodities that are mandatory. Health care, food, water, power. 

 

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+1 @ghdprentice 

@1971gto455ho Sure. SF speakers are woefully overpriced and that’s why nobody has purchased them. Just another pretty box.

They are pretty. Very much so. While I get that they might not be your cup of tea, the performance of the speaker is fully competitive with the others in their price range - even after the increase. I bought into the brand because i liked the sound. They’re more musical and easier on my ears than my previous, very highly rated and accurate speaker. They’re more musical than the other higher end brands sold by my local dealers to which I directly compared them. 

Why is it not possible for some people to accept that we all have different tastes and biases - which is a good thing - as it’s made the industry adapt and provide increasingly competitive choices. You shouldn’t need me to like what you like to validate your purchase. And you shouldn’t need to denigrate a brand and those who’ve purchased their products just because it’s not what you would have done. Millions of people around the world have disagreed with their wallet.

On the business case - I’ll just defer to ghdprentice as he covers it well.

@ghdprentice + 1