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

Showing 3 responses by kijanki

When I see people buying and selling $50k gear it reminds me this guy who successfully sold dog for $50k by trading it for two cats $25k each.
Al, you're right of course, but you have to admit that my animal joke fits to expensive cable trade.
Stanwal, my friend was planning to do the same with amplifier he designed. Unfortunately this amplifier had tendency to oscillate in certain setups. I told him that it would be financial suicide if his amp will start damaging customers' speakers. He couldn't afford to buy many common speakers or spend a lot of time testing. Fortunately he gave up this idea. It is very difficult and costly to start such business and get any recognition.