They should charge more for it…


The Absolute Sound magazine just elected the new Wilson Benesch GMT one turntable as their turntable of the year…and awarded it as such.

In the mini review of the table, the author writes, you know something is up when a competitor states..“ they should charge more for it”. Yet, the table under consideration is priced at a measly $302k! Yes folks, more than a quarter of a million dollars! Yet we are being lead to believe that this product is maybe underpriced? 
Interesting attitudes prevailing in high end audio reviewing these days…

Perhaps it is under priced, as maybe it could sell for millions of dollars…to the right audiophile consumers? The Absolute sound reviewer, and lately most audio reviewers, seem to think that any price asked is fine, so long as the piece basically delivers the goods. Are they correct?

daveyf

I read the GMT white paper on the WB website. What they’ve done and the way they did it are impressive. I’m sure it’s superb. Whether it had to cost as much as it costs is a matter for someone else to decide. All manufactured products are about making money.

WB has been around 36 years, so they must know something about pricing...I imagine they don't plan on selling too many of these, but there are many wealthy people for whom this isn't a major purchase...and there is lots of great low and mid cost gear for the rest of us...

Besides the fact that I've stopped paying attention to the absolute sounds products of the year selections, I think most of these expensive turntables look like Frankenstein monstrosities.

 

Besides the fact that I've stopped paying attention to the Absolute Sounds products of the year selections, I think most of these expensive turntables look like Frankenstein monstrosities.

 

it is much harder to build something that performs well that is of a simple and elegant design, than something where you need to have all kinds of parts rotating and flying around to make it work the way you intend it to.

 

It's a personal reflection, of course, as are all my comments. :-)

Entering the luxury market is much about choosing a business model and/or battle for status, they may have indeed priced it too low if status important to purchaser. As for value and performance, that's for the actual purchaser to determine.

bimmerlover

I think most of these expensive turntables look like Frankenstein monstrosities.

I couldn’t agree more. Many of them are just fugly.

... it is much harder to build something that performs well that is of a simple and elegant design ...

Exactly!

"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." (Einstein)