The death of ultra hiend audio


Verity and DarTzeel last year, now MBL, ultra high end audio manufacturers are facing their demise and they have nobody but themselves to blame. What do these companies have in common: too much investment in creating the very best and when that fails raising their prices bottom up to recover their losses and inevitably charging 2x what the same product cost just a few years ago. Ego, greed and poor management can only result in one thing!

hiendmmoe

"Ego, greed and poor management can only result in one thing!"

It appears those businesses may not have  acknowledged their situations soon enough and were not nimble enough to adjust to changes in their markets before costs got out of control.  However, I would not assume ego and greed.  Engineers and artists are often poor business people and the higher pricing may have come out of desperation to keep the ship afloat.  Businesses that do not practice effective strategic planning, including activities like SWOT analyses, situational awareness, and risk management, can more easily find themselves in deep water as their clients and market demands change.

I wondered how an amp (dartzeel) could possibly cost so much ($145,000+). The power output was good, but other amps have that much power and more. So, what is inside those amps that cost so much?

I mean, the internal components, even of the best quality should not have elevated the price so much.

They (darTzeel) probably tried to market to the ultra-rich, but most of the audiophiles are not in that category.

At least I am not.

ozzy

Check out the new top dog DAC from MSB, the Sentinel. A cool $375K. Hopefully it makes all music files (ok at least 16 bit 44.1K floor res) sound insanely good!