Price Increases

Look at some of the Virtual Systems at here costing into the hundreds of thousands and ponder upon the foolishness of man.

Look at some of the Virtual Systems at here costing into the hundreds of thousands and ponder upon the foolishness of man.

Is that more foolish than a man walking the streets with hundreds of thousands rolled into a wristwatch?

"The challenge is to find, say, the $10K speaker that sounds like those $100K "high-end" ones",

Well, there are some giant killers out there Ack, largely the small manufacturers selling direct. I spoke to just such a small manufacturer a couple of years ago, who estimated the material, labour and delivery costs of a $80000 loudspeaker, was probably $20000, including a modest profit. The rest is marketing, dealer and distributor margins, which can easily add 50% to the cost+ a large margin to the manufacturer.

Who are they? Well ones I have heard myself, Devore, Silverline and the ones I bought and am very happy with, Daedalus. Others I have'nt heard, but who you hear good things about, Vapour, Tyler, Odyssey. Vapour and Odyssey get uniformly good feedback at the shows, from reviewers, as does Daedalus of course.

Material and shipping costs all have increased parts vendors are increasing prices and have been doing so for sometime. So only was a matter of time before manufacturers have to pass it on to consumer.

Of course you are right Johnk, but I think the concern here is the 50-100% or more increase in cost of flagship models from numerous lines.