Why is the price of new tonearms so high

I visited an (audio) designer/engineers house/shop/showroom
last week. After an awesone vinyl demo, he took me into his shop where he was designing a new tonearm. I don't know if his arm will be $12k to $15k but looking at his gear (much of the equipment is used for making watches, ie watch lathes, etc), I can say that (1) he has spent mucho dollars on the equipment and (2) spends many thousands of hours working on his design. After listening to the arm he is convinced he will better, I would not question the price that he feels fit to charge. I may not buy it, nor do I have to, but do appreciate the investment he has made in his design, and would never criticize him or it for it. Having mentioned the watch making equipment, and being a watch buff, I must point out that there are $9,000 watches and $100,000(+++) watches. Yes, both tell time but both make very different statements.

if anyone knows how amway or avon or mary kay works...in ultra hi end, its the same thing....and yes the trade shows are like mary kay conventions with bald guys.

Hey Johnnyb53,

Thanks for the cool pic. Do you have a photo of the later upgrade model with the VTA adjustment?

06-23-09: Krusty2k
Hey Johnnyb53,

Thanks for the cool pic. Do you have a photo of the later upgrade model with the VTA adjustment?

It's built in. You just change the number of records under the one you want to play. Use RCA Dynaflexes for finer adjustments.

Economy of scale has to figure in here somewhere. If an auto company developed a car for a production run of 20, each one would be around $50 million. Make a couple hundred thousand and it spreads the R&D costs out to $5K per car. Companies such as SME, Graham, and Dynavector have been making tonearms for a long time and have a lot of experience they can apply to a new design for free. They're also higher profile makes who sell more copies of what they make. The price difference between a $12K Cobra and a $5K Graham may not necessarily indicate a quality difference if Graham sells ten times as many.

There's also the panache factor. If you're spending $50K on a Caliburn, many customers would expect to spend a proportional amount on a purpose-built tonearm rather than something off the shelf.