Linn Bedrok LP12 Plinth Upgrade

   Linn has a way of adopting certain outside improvements to their LP12.  Case in point, the Bedrock plinth: The British outfit, "houseoflinn", Europe's Leading Linn Specialists(their quote) came up with a laminated Bamboo plinth, The Booplinth, years ago that was machined out of a single block laminated bamboo.  

   In the  August 1984 Page 51, issue of Hifi News And Record Review(J Atkinson was still editor), an article titled,"Sacrilege" by Martin Colloms, had to do with the reason LP12s had this sort of fat bass(personally I liked it and most owners), and he demonstrated the reason for it and a fix for it, the issue centered around the platter bearing/well.  The Cirkus wasn't released until (1993?) to address this issue.  By the way, I did Martin's fix and it worked marvelously( machinist made the part for me).  If you're an LP12 owner, a worthwhile read.  I still have my copy.  $2.75 at Krochs and Brentanos back then.  I think they're fifteen bucks or more now but still my favorite audio journal and authority on audio subjects.

@newton_john

Yes, and I studied crystallography for three years in the Cambridge lab set up by the Bragg father and son pair who invented X-ray diffraction crystallography.  Well before computers and computer graphics, and before Crick and Watson deduced the structure of DNA!  I can't even remember the names of the 2-D diagrams that showed the 3-D orientation of crystal planes ...

From another thread I've just discovered that Australia makes Dohmann turntables which also use Diamond-like coating for the main bearing.

@richardbrand

Fascinating Richard. It’s almost like everything is connected in some weird way. I also had experience of X-ray crystallography in a small way in the lab when studying Physics in the seventies at what is now the University of Westminster. I also had a great uncle who’d been some sort of technician/instrument maker at Cambridge and had worked with some of the great men who’d done much of the Physics that I was learning about. It wasn’t until later that I realised I'd missed the chance to ask him about them.

Since the focus of this thread seems to be the retail price of the new Linn plinth, I thought it might be worthwhile to post this extract from Pro-Ject's literature on their most expensive Signature turntable, which has a retail price of 12,000 Euros (my emphasis)

We‘re thrilled to offer these turntables at an extremely attractive price, as the development cost is not counted, as we anyway had to do the research to move forward with Pro-Ject technology in general

Obviously, all the development costs have been amortized in the revenue stream from their mass market products!

Every manufacturer has to cover their costs and make some profit, or they will go out of business.  Most manufacturers have high set up costs which have to be funded before the first unit makes its way to market.  After that, there are the direct costs associated with each extra unit produced.  So in setting a retail price, the manufacturer has to guess how many units they will sell so that the line becomes profitable once it reaches the breakeven number sold.  If the price is too high, the number sold may not even reach breakeven.

If the manufacturer only produces high-end expensive gear, they may need very deep pockets.  Wilson Benesch have been very adept at getting university collaboration and research grants to offset some development cost, at the time-cost of dealing with government!

Extreme examples of very high set up costs and low production costs include books, semi-conductor chips and polycarbonate disks which all have a unit direct production cost of around a dollar or less.

The above assumes that pricing is set on a rational value-for-money basis, but those rules don't apply to luxury goods where the consumer seemingly forgets about value-for-money and chases status and ego-boosting items.  I don't think the Bedrok is flashy enough to fall into the luxury category!

@richardbrand That’s an interesting point. I tend to agree with you that the Bedrok is not flashy enough to appeal to the folks who shop primarily with their eyes..and not their ears. 
However, since there have been a few Bedrok sales so far, I guess folk seem to believe that the SQ boost is worth it. 
I suspect these very same folk would have little problem with the same looking Bedrok if it was priced at three times the current ask. Question is what price is it that elicits push back??