New level of ridiculousness

its not that i find value in the product, but rather, i have presented a rationale for finding value in any product regardless of its cost.

it's based upon the adage "the value in use equals the value in exchange". it is an explanation of the way commerce takes place. another way of saying this is the price of a product is based upon what the "market" for the product will pay for it.

for example, if a manufacturer prices an amplifier at $25,000, maybe no consumer will consider it worth the asking price, hence none will be sold. if instead, the amp was priced at $15,000, perhaps it would sell.

i am talking about an equlibrium between the value an individual places on a product vs the cost of the product.

whoever sees value in a $9000 (approx) power strip will buy it. those who don't , won't.

so i don't think the issue is ridiculousness, but rather economics, or performance vs price. there is nothing intrinsically ridiculous about the price of a product, only wheteher it is priced to high to sell in quantity or it is believed to be fairly priced, in which case more will be sold.

think economics, not ridiculousness.

the "rules", or concepts embodied in the discipline of economics can explain the behavior of audiophiles.

'Kgturner: For $4K, I'll make ya one out of Corian and call it the PowerMaster Corian. Who wants a PowerSlave when you can have the PowerMaster?!'

- that's some funneh chit raight thurr!

No different than when I walked through the Brookstone store at the mall. Just a bunch of ridiculous nonsense for people who don't know what to do with all their money, IMHO.

Is a $150k Mercedes any more sensible when a $20k Honda will do the job just fine? The people I see who are super rich just blow it away on fancy stuff.

What would YOU spend your money on that is WORTHWHILE if you were a multimillionaire? If you have kids, a Harvard education? If your parent are poor or old, a nice home or a nice convalescent home? Aaron Spelling bought himself a 90 million dollar home. From what I understand, the neighbors with their 15 million dollar homes thought it was over the top. Extravagance is relative.

Are charitable gifts the best thing you could do with it or is it better to just spend it all on yourself with Rolex, summer house on the beach, exotic vacations, a pet Bengal tiger? Four African men came to the US a couple years back. They said any stranger could just walk up to any hut in their village and would be welcomed in. What would happen here? I know, people call the police, shut their door, or don't answer it.

I took a tour through Coconut Grove Florida. The guide said it is the second most rich town after Bel-Air. He continued, "See there are no sidewalks here. If you ARE walking either 1) your car broke down or 2) You are a burglar breaking into a house. This is the epitome of what we are trying to achieve? Money isolates IMHO.

its all about the marketing approach of the manufacturer.

regardless of what the consumer thinks, the business owner is trying to maximize his profit. if he thinks a high price will do it, he will charge a high price. if he prefers the volume approach, he will try to sell as many products as he can and set an appropriate price.

there is nothing ridiculous about a high price.

There is no question that the Acrylic and Marble PowerSlaves greatly improve the sound. This would suggest that the outlets and the wiring in other powerstrips are inadequate. It would also suggest that RFI and EMI might not be as much of a factor as contacts. I once went to the trouble of hot wiring my preamp to the wall plug. It was a pain in the ass, but it was glorious. At another time I hot-wired my source to my preamp to my amps to my speakers. That was glorious also.

Presently, I am using the new TriPoint Troy Signature grounding unit. It is expensive and wondrous! I have tried other methods of grounding each component to every other one as well as lifting the grounds of all and also grounding only the preamp. This made a positive improvement but nothing of the magnitude of the TriPoint Signature.

If you want the highest level of realism, isolation, grounding, contacts, and electromagnetic interference need to be considered. If you can forego realism of great performances, you need not bother.