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Amp design logic

I hope you'll excuse my absolute and obvious ignorance...but this is a sincere question.

I don't get why one company is selling a new tube amp for ~$1000, and another is selling one for ~$50,000. What is one paying for? The proprietary circuit design?

Surely if one adds up the cost of the parts, trannies, chassis, etc. it's not worth $50K.

I accept that the more expensive one sounds lots, lots better. But what makes the price so high? Demand?

I think given a circuit diagram from a repair manual, I could eventually build most tube amps from scratch, using the absolute best of each part available. After I learn to solder. For less than $50K, just buying the best cap, resistor, wire, etc. made, for each part, I could slowly build an amp equal to the best in the world. So I don't get it.

What makes an amp worth $50K? It can only be the proprietary tube amp design.

Maybe another factor is the transformers. Each company seems to have their own iron, but that can't be a significant part of $50K?

Thanks, just really wondering about this. And wondering why don't I just make my own? If I buy one part at a time, eventually I can have the best amp there can be.

Jim
river251
river251 OP
154 posts
 
Thank you all for the great discourse.

I don't know that starting an amp from scratch is better than getting something like a CJ MV-55 and trying to make it sound like the way high end.
wolf_garcia
6,686 posts
 
The price paradox: Expensive gear adds to its own "excitement value" when you wait and buy it later (used) at a much cheaper price. It's also conversely true (for me anyway) that finding an inexpensive new thing that sounds amazing (good cheap DAC or a bargain tube amp) is also very cool. Maybe I'm easily excited.
hifigeek1
770 posts
 
Also remember that generally the dealer makes more on the product then the manufacturer does. Yes the dealer has overhead, but the manufacturer has much more overhead. That is why some manufacturers tend to sell direct. By selling direct, it cuts out the dealer, and the mark up. It can be an inconvenience if the manufacturer doesn't allow you to return it and get you money back if you don't like it however. It also becomes an issue if you like to see it and touch the product before you buy it. That being said, some companies find dealing direct with the consumer a better, more cost effective approach.
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,682 posts
 
"Excitable boy they all said"....all apologies to Warren Z!!!!
ths364
181 posts
 
IMO, part of this pricing is hype. Boutique parts can be very pricey, especially if machining costs do not benefit from the economy of scale. Unless the manufacturer is copying a time proven circuit and modifying it, there could be significant time spent engineering the circuit, plus there are all kinds of esoteric build "tricks" that experienced designers/builders know and frequently don't share. Things like: wire routing,component layout, capacitive coupling, and stuff that's just plain weird like eddy currents and transformer core-saturation.
It may be a case of the 80/20 rule. You might be able to get 80% of the way there for 20% of the price, but the final 20% is REALLY gonna eat up some time and money.
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