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What makes a $20,000 cd player cost 20,000?

Hi,
Listened to a Linn Sondeck CD12 (sp?) a few years back and the thing amazed me.
Was expecting that digital player development would continue to progress and that this level of performance would become available in the 2-5,000 range. It appears to me that redbook cd player development has stagnated, so I wanted to run a couple questions by for a sanity check.
1. Is there anything in the design or manufacture of top notch cd players that neccessarily results in stratospheric production costs?
2. Has anything come out in the last two or three years that really struck you as raising the bar in the price to performace ratio?
Happy listening.
jeff_jones
lkdog
417 posts
 
Boa2-

Your sentiments are well appreciated.
The daily needless loss of human life going on in the world right now is of much more import than all of our crazy perseverating over digital front ends.

Maybe we do this at times as a harmless escape from the realities of the world. There are certainly worse things we could be doing and I am not one to feel guilty over these small enjoyments-but I did not want your comments to go unacknowledged.

Now back to mindless perseverating everybody!
gregm
3,411 posts
 
Boa & Lkdog are the most clearsghted of us, of course. Returning to the senseless entertainment:)

What makes the price of a 20k player? Here's one calculation method:
Per UNIT Total: (direct cost+ indirect cost + financial cost)=
$ 3,5-5k for SMALL company
$ <2,2 for LARGE company
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Pertaining largely to the question of who would buy such a cd player, read "The Millionaire Next Door"; most persons with net worth wealth (not just high income coupled with high expenses and low net worth) would never dream of spending so much on electronics. There are exceptions, but typically the truly wealthy live very conservatively. That would put the majority of our systems, and even many individual components, beyond what they would spend.

In some ways, I'm sure there are audio junkies who can be compared to the person living in an apartment, who has no savings or retirement plan, yet is driving on lease an expensive automobile. The appearance of wealth, without wealth. So, many audiophiles probably have high end systems but are not net worth wealthy. They are the one's more likely to buy the $20,000 player. High income coupled with a high cash burn rate.

I'm sure there is a discernable difference in sound between a 4k and 20k player, but net worth millionaires as a group wouldn't care - they would state that even a 4k player is too expensive for what is obtained from it. It's something they don't need. It's one of the reasons they became wealthy.
boa2's avatar
boa2
1,551 posts
 
I'm waiting for someone to write "The Multi-Millionaire Next Door," because I know quite a few of them, and they all have VERY expensive watches, cars, HT, and audio systems. They put making money first, but they do spend crazy amounts of money on toys. Crazy money to us, not to them.
newbee
4,798 posts
 
Douglas and Boa2, Interesting comments..not without some foundation I think.

IMHO, only a fool hordes his money and only a boor makes a display of it. Once you have provided for a secure future for yourself and your family, spend the damm stuff on what ever gives you pleasure!

Envy or second guessing what those with means do with their money is like stereotypical Chinese food. You can eat a lot of it, but you'll be hungry again a few hours later. :-)

Who cares whether someone, other than the owner, can appreciate a 20K component! Its really unimportant to anyone else and, personally, I'm glad they find some satisfaction. It would be really sad if they didn't. I can find no good reason that I would want, or any one else should want, to make this owner sad. Life is too short.
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