So what do you think you could build it for?
Start with R&D costs
designing a case and getting it built
designing pcbs and getting them made
Custom transformers
3 X 12AX7 tubes
rest of parts
Staff to assemble
staff to test
staff to package and logistics etc
staff to market it
manufacturers margin
Distributors margin
retailers margin
and on and on it goes
This is a steal at $800.00 and in fact its incredible they can sell this at such a low price and stay in business.
Lets say it costs $300 in simple parts and labor costs overheads (Dont know how this is possible). They make 40% profit and the distributor makes 40% and the retailer makes 40% it comes in at 800 dollars.
Do you think you could build it for $300 with that sexy audiophool case?
I really dont know what the margins are in this industry but these numbers seemed plausible to me.
I have a hard time with accepting the freedom of the individual to use his money as he wishes, manifest in high end Hi-Fi, whether it seems like decadent opulent folly to most people or not, much worse if it is.
This does not integrate well with me, having seen a programme last night about ten year old boys picking coffee berries for 9 hours for $5 in S. America, and missing school just to be able to allow their families to eat.
But this is a socialist empathy, probably despised by many.
(Oh, BTW class A produces third harmonic distortion.)
This does not integrate well with me, having seen a programme last night about ten year old boys picking coffee berries for 9 hours for $5 in S. America, and missing school just to be able to allow their families to eat.
But this is a socialist empathy, probably despised by many.
(Oh, BTW class A produces third harmonic distortion.)
I've bought knives in kitchen town in Tokyo and I have to agree with you. Knives truly made individually by an artisan are not cheap. This site is very good about stock and foreign shipping. I ordered a custom left handed knife without issue.
https://www.hocho-knife.com/sabun-aoko-aogami-no-1-steel/
It's not. But when they join a forum like this and start posting claims with no supporting evidence, then that would be bad because it creates civil unrest.
Ah, you see, some people I've seen would disagree. I don't know about where you are but around where I am, they consider themselves victims of... say, societal pressure to pay the bills which forced them to be greedy and thus resorted to such act. They are otherwise good people and it's the society's fault in their view. 
Well, I watched the individual artisan make the knives (he's the only one who works there) and have sat and drank with him. His hocho sell for between $50 (carbon) and $70 (stainless) and I wish for no better. Perhaps Tokyo isn't the best place to get good value.
I bought mine here:
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Thanks, Jan, for indulging and teaching us. Your are a good sport and example of good engineering/design. That’s why I ventured to you as an example.
Price and value are (and always have been) two different things.
Value, however, is completely subjective to the buyer.
What is important to you and what is important to others is not the same. Let the $50,000.00 speaker cables exist. Those who buy them perceive value in them.
“A fool and his money” and all that...
Yesss!
Some people can actually appreciate a knife with a hardness of Rockwel hardness of 66. I have a powedered steel knife that claimed that hardness and I just know it’s a pain to keep sharp, and to sharpen. Your mileage may vary.
So, how much did you donate this year to those poor boys in S-America? Ballpark figure?
Jan
Ah, you see, some people I've seen would disagree. I don't know about where you are but around where I am, they consider themselves victims of... say, societal pressure to pay the bills which forced them to be greedy and thus resorted to such act. They are otherwise good people and it's the society's fault in their view.
Ohh, I now am in what is known as the home of the free. Are you now saying they aren't really free at all ? ;-)
Jan
I buy my Maxwell House in the jumbo 48oz cans at Sam's Club...
Am I jipping anyone out of life-saving food? 😱
more things not worth the value of their components:
the human body
a bottle of wine
MS Office software (no link required...)
a Hummer
bottled water
digital art
a New York apartment
Cream
The list is endless. If you can't recognise the difference between cost and value, that's a problem for you. If you can't understand that value is necessarily subjective and situational, that's an even bigger problem.
We have a housing problem here in Auckland New Zealand. Purportedly, there are not enough of them. Consequently, they sell for eye-watering money. Its not unusual for very ordinary houses to be sold for 8 or more times the average annual salary here.
Only 100 km away, the housing market is different and prices, while still stupid, are around 2/3 of Auckland prices. WOT would have all the sellers in Auckland as con-men and the buyers as dupes - they should all exchange property at the same price as those in Hamilton, NZ.
Except, market economics. The value of property in Auckland is seen as greater than the value of property in Hamilton, so there is a price difference. Its not rational, but then not a lot in life is.
If the cost of the fully built item continues to offend you, here's a practical solution.
Buy 5 or 6 of these, build them up and sell them at a price you find appealling. Let us know how it works out.
the human body
a bottle of wine
MS Office software (no link required...)
a Hummer
bottled water
digital art
a New York apartment
Cream
The list is endless. If you can't recognise the difference between cost and value, that's a problem for you. If you can't understand that value is necessarily subjective and situational, that's an even bigger problem.
We have a housing problem here in Auckland New Zealand. Purportedly, there are not enough of them. Consequently, they sell for eye-watering money. Its not unusual for very ordinary houses to be sold for 8 or more times the average annual salary here.
Only 100 km away, the housing market is different and prices, while still stupid, are around 2/3 of Auckland prices. WOT would have all the sellers in Auckland as con-men and the buyers as dupes - they should all exchange property at the same price as those in Hamilton, NZ.
Except, market economics. The value of property in Auckland is seen as greater than the value of property in Hamilton, so there is a price difference. Its not rational, but then not a lot in life is.
If the cost of the fully built item continues to offend you, here's a practical solution.
Buy 5 or 6 of these, build them up and sell them at a price you find appealling. Let us know how it works out.
I dislike marketing BS and snake oil as much as anyone, but I feel the OPs distaine could perhaps be directed at the recent growth in income disparity, which makes this kind of excess possible, rather than manufacturers exploiting the opportunity. Good luck to them I say, as an engineer it is nice when some one say do your best, cost no object.
I met a clever guy a few years back, he developed an amp and a pair of speakers, and put a price on them of $100,000, took them to CES and they seemed well received, but he backed off, cause he wouldn't deal with the the amount of **** licking required by the customer to make a sale.
Usually it is the buyer, although the manufacturer sets the inital price (and of course it depends on the distribution chain).
Therefore I was interested to learn about the OP's opinion about a fair markup (and about the price of the stepup transformers).
All based on my suprise about the usage of the term "greed" (due to the definition I've mentioned before)
No idea, but life is too short to drink Maxwell House 😀. I mean, any coffee is better than none, but still.
It is only a couple of nights ago that I saw the programme, but actually I have worked for two altruistic charities, and given money to those homeless on the streets in a local town.
You also do not know my economic status, and so any intended attack |I feel to be without a foundational basis.