Originally Posted by
Marco
Indeed. In that respect, I look forward soon to being the proud new owner of Simon's Sussex pile!
In any case, the idea that you get what you pay for, whilst often the case, ignores the fact (especially in high-end audio) where you can pay massively over the odds simply for the badge, and/or the notion of exclusivity, especially when you get to the likes of £150k systems.
How much of what you're paying for is 'brand/badge desirability', and crucially, how much is down to what is perceived by the manufacturer as what the market will stand?
In that respect, my experience of folk (and remember I've worked for specialist hi-fi dealerships in the past, so I'm familiar with their clientele), is that if it's too cheap they won't buy it!!
That's why some hi-fi equipment costs the huge sums it does: to create an air of exclusivity, which appeals to their customers., not because it's necessarily any better than something that's half the price, or less...
So once you've knocked all of the above off of the price tag, how much has *actually* been spent where it matters most, 'under the hood'...? *Only then* will you know if 'you get what you pay for', in terms of out-and-out sonic performance, or not!
Marco.
Yep. If you buy a £2K amp from a big manufacturer and through a dealer then the dealer gets about £1K for selling it for a start... by the time you look at overheads for the staff, advertising budget, PR gurus, manufacturers profit margin etc you could be looking at as little as £100 or so in material cost to the manufacturer.
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