Nope 
but Hypex are a Business and not foolish. If they can sell the nc500 boards as cheap as they do to OEMs, do the maths, there is a healthy markup on direct sales (which I have no problem with). An OEM will send funky boards back to Hypex just as fast as DIYers would
Besides, the nc1200 has made them a mint considering the manufacturing costs... It is known what the OEM cost of nc1200 is but people too scared to state this after the recent assault on someone here divulging the nc500 list price
but Hypex are a Business and not foolish. If they can sell the nc500 boards as cheap as they do to OEMs, do the maths, there is a healthy markup on direct sales (which I have no problem with). An OEM will send funky boards back to Hypex just as fast as DIYers wouldBesides, the nc1200 has made them a mint considering the manufacturing costs... It is known what the OEM cost of nc1200 is but people too scared to state this after the recent assault on someone here divulging the nc500 list price
Nope
Again I would assume they sell the nc500 in much larger quantities (and batches) than the nc400's - but neither of us have any hard facts.
Indeed I find it strange, I had a guy question why I charge £300 more for a Abrahamsen V2.0UP at £899 than he could of imported one directly from Norway. I suggested he take his PMC twenty 23 back to the dealer and ask for the circa £600 ish profit back. Not once did he consider how he amassed £2500 surplus cash to afford to purchase them in the first place.
Regarding pricing - I really do not get what all the fuss is about.
If you don't like it, buy a differet product
People don't realize your not just paying for the raw parts, you paying for the engineering that went into them. How much does it cost a software company to send you a digital download of their software? Or a record company to send you a digital download of an album? Your paying for the work that's already been done.
Your correct, the bottom line is if you feel your being ripped off with Hypex products, buy another product that offers worse performance for a higher price. I think you'll find 98% of everything else on the market fit's this bill.
I've found that many people trust reviews even more than their own ears. They need confirmation from the masses to even confirm that what they heard with their own ears is really better than other product's that have glowing reviews, and ad's in every second page of Stereophile etc.
Little do these people realize, the more funds these companies allocate to advertising, the less they can put into the products if they want to make the same profit margin.
And I can guarantee you that the bottom line is the last thing these guys are willing to sacrifice. So they are left with only 2 choices, jack up the price, or skimp on quality.
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And pretty quickly most people start hearing what they feel they should be hearing, because everybody else is hearing it.
If you look at the description of groupthink it does sound pretty familiar:
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the "ingroup" produces an "illusion of invulnerability" (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the "ingroup" significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making, and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the "outgroup"). Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the "outgroup".
Except that it's not a fixed number of units sold- advertising moves more units, which allows for better amortization of fixed cost, better terms on quantity for variable cost, more gross money to play with for R&D, and other factors (I could write a lot about economies of scale in audio... let's just say they're small relative to most industries).
I'm not saying the "ad brigade" therefore makes better gear, just that it's not the simple issue you're characterizing it as. Advertising generally pays for itself, though when you're talking audio normal economic models needn't apply.
Yes of course companies spend piles on advertising for the purpose of selling more units and make more profit. But you will find that the best deals available in audio are usually from factory direct manufacturers who do little advertising.
But your points are very valid, the more volume you blast through the better deals you can get on parts, and more money is flowing through to spend on R&D. Besides as I mentioned before, the perception that a product is superior, can be more powerful than it actually being superior.
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Yes this is very true. Which is why I try to think independently at all times. The internet has only made this problem worse. We are no longer using the facilities of our brains that allow us to think on our own. I can just imagine 50 years from now
Yes this is very true. Which is why I try to think independently at all times. The internet has only made this problem worse. We are no longer using the facilities of our brains that allow us to think on our own. I can just imagine 50 years from now
Can it get even worse than all the selfies and cat pictures?
except...
That the Internet also makes it more possible for companies which do not advertise, and which sell direct, to exist at all. So, it is not all bad on that front. The problem is when the consumer loses trust in their own ability to discriminate and make decisions.
On Hypex, we should all thank our lucky stars that they make such advanced technology as the NC-400 available for DIY at fair prices; they certainly do not need to do so, and the CS they deal with to support DIYers is likely quite resource intensive for them per unit sold vs OEM sales.
Yes this is very true. Which is why I try to think independently at all times. The internet has only made this problem worse. We are no longer using the facilities of our brains that allow us to think on our own. I can just imagine 50 years from now
That the Internet also makes it more possible for companies which do not advertise, and which sell direct, to exist at all. So, it is not all bad on that front. The problem is when the consumer loses trust in their own ability to discriminate and make decisions.
On Hypex, we should all thank our lucky stars that they make such advanced technology as the NC-400 available for DIY at fair prices; they certainly do not need to do so, and the CS they deal with to support DIYers is likely quite resource intensive for them per unit sold vs OEM sales.
I have no problem with the Internet, and Internet sales. The point I was getting at is the Internet makes it far too convenient to not have to rely on the facilities in our brains to make decisions. Because a "much more informed decision" is only a couple clicks away.
Yes there should be less bashing about prices and more praise on this forum. Before Hypex came around the choices for DIY amps were far inferior, bulky, expensive, and labor intensive to build. Since this is the DIYaudio forum, this is what people should be focusing on.
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