Price Increases

Have you not heard, the rich have gotten richer. The appreciation in their assets, stocks and houses, give them more to spend. So, price increase in their end of the hi fi market can be made easily. Fortunately, the rest of us are spared as the mass producers of audio products still must cater to us poor souls. Hi end cars are also doing well with bit price increases to boot.

Look at some of the Virtual Systems at here costing into the hundreds of thousands and ponder upon the foolishness of man.

Look at some of the Virtual Systems at here costing into the hundreds of thousands and ponder upon the foolishness of man.

Is that more foolish than a man walking the streets with hundreds of thousands rolled into a wristwatch?

"The challenge is to find, say, the $10K speaker that sounds like those $100K "high-end" ones",

Well, there are some giant killers out there Ack, largely the small manufacturers selling direct. I spoke to just such a small manufacturer a couple of years ago, who estimated the material, labour and delivery costs of a $80000 loudspeaker, was probably $20000, including a modest profit. The rest is marketing, dealer and distributor margins, which can easily add 50% to the cost+ a large margin to the manufacturer.

Who are they? Well ones I have heard myself, Devore, Silverline and the ones I bought and am very happy with, Daedalus. Others I have'nt heard, but who you hear good things about, Vapour, Tyler, Odyssey. Vapour and Odyssey get uniformly good feedback at the shows, from reviewers, as does Daedalus of course.

Material and shipping costs all have increased parts vendors are increasing prices and have been doing so for sometime. So only was a matter of time before manufacturers have to pass it on to consumer.