Is hifi worth what it costs

[BigH]

3.90am? No such time.

 

[CnoEvil]

I have now my alarm clock set for 3:90am.

Impedance is futile.

Watt! Ohm-y goodness. Where's your Sensitivity.

 

[Vladimir]

3.90am? No such time.

Duh! *crazy*

 

[Vladimir]

No Mr Bond you must Die ! *smile*

I have reflective silver latex panties (somewhere). Lasers are useless on me.

 

[Gazzip]

No Mr Bond you must Die ! *smile*

I have reflective silver latex panties (somewhere). Lasers are useless on me.

Do you wear this while modding CD transports? Just asking. Not visualising.

 

[Vladimir]

No Mr Bond you must Die ! *smile*

I have reflective silver latex panties (somewhere). Lasers are useless on me.

Do you wear this while modding CD transports? Just asking. Not visualising.

Making the mechanism more innert by adding mass, damping and structural reinforcement doesn't involve doing the full monty dance on top of the laser pickup.

Amateur.

 

[Gazzip]

No Mr Bond you must Die ! *smile*

I have reflective silver latex panties (somewhere). Lasers are useless on me.

Do you wear this while modding CD transports? Just asking. Not visualising.

Making the mechanism more innert by adding mass, damping and structural reinforcement doesn't involve doing the full monty dance on top of the laser pickup.

Amateur.

Apologies. I defer.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

That’s too much information ! *dirol*

 

[SemiChronic]

Hifi is only worth it if you buy cyrus

 

[SemiChronic]

Sorry OP for derailing your thread. Quest, when are you going to get it into your mental head that some people are happy with what they have, even though they could have spent far more. I bought my stuff like buying a sofa or whatever, tried it, liked it, liked the price. Paid. Done. It really wasnt that big of a deal. Most men to spend most of thier disposable income on thier wife and kids. Something youd know nothing about.

 

[Gaz37]

No Mr Bond you must Die !  *smile*

I have reflective silver latex panties (somewhere). Lasers are useless on me.

Me too.
Nothing to do with lasers though, just a lifestyle choice

 

[lindsayt]

lindsayt, nice overview. However, it misses how actual businesses have to work if they want to avoid bankruptcy. You focus, it appears, on the material costs at the expense of design, overhead (including management), profit margin, marketing costs. As has been discussed here in the past, and in other fora as well, the material costs of most modern technological equipment is only a relatively small part of the total costs. Consumers tend to forget this as they don't need to factor in their own labour: if you cook a meal or build a DIY speaker kit it may seem cheap, as you may actually enjoy the work. But a business needs to pay its employees. Hobby companies may forego these costs in the start-up phase, but eventually even these will realise they need to factor in these costs if they are to generate some income...

Design costs? In my hypothetical less is more world class CD player?

What design costs? The transport' already designed and made. The DAC design's already be done and is included in the £10 price of the chip. The analogue stage? That's simple. All we're talking about is a single amplification stage to ensure the CD player can drive any pre-amp section. Power supply design? Simple for anyone that's made power amps. Just adapt from previous products to give the required voltages.

Overhead, including management? Our hypothetical world class CD player is so simple to do that it can be done by a 1 man band. We're not talking about moon rockets here! The addition of management to our hypothetical company would not make the CD player sound any better. It would just add to the cost for no benefit to the customer.

Profit margin? That's why £800 to £1000 in parts would be sold for £1500 direct and £2500 through dealers.

Marketing? Send a sample CD player to What Hi-fi magazine. Sell it as ex-demo (still at a small profit) afterwards. Arrange or attend a few hi-fi forum bake-offs. There's your marketing, Very powerful marketing at minimal cost.

OK maybe my figures on a low turnover item were a bit low. Let's make the selling price £2500 direct and £3500 through dealers.

Happy now?

 

[lindsayt]

Therefore any CD players costing over £2500 are a "rip-off" - when compared to our hypothetical minimalist one.

We can apply the same to DAC's.

Doesn't really marry up with the best players I’ve heard, of which most have been over £2500.

When we move on to pre-amplifiers there's an argument that for some systems any pre-amp over £600 is a "rip-off".

I know I’m talking about multi-channel pre-amps here, but there’s a world of difference between an Audiolab 8200AP and a Classé Sigma SSP. If your pre-amp isn’t up to the job, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the system is.

Pre-amplifiers, despite being one of what should be one of the simplest products to produce, seems to be the hardest one to get right - there’s plenty around, but to get a really top notch one that stands out from the crowd is fairly rare.

I wonder how many people thought the (infamous) Goldmund Eidos 18D was the best CD player they'd ever heard?

For transports, how about a Wadia 3200?

http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/REFERENCES/wadia%20WT%203200/WT3200.html

And David, when talking about pre-amps I did use italics on the word "some".

Question: What might sound better than the best linestage in the world?

Answer: nothing

If you take away the linestage from a pre-amp, what are you left with? And how much would that cost if you wanted to go all out fror sound quality?

 

[Vladimir]

Here is a CD player from US "high end" brand EDGE. Asking price in norway was 10.000 dollars.

Do you see what's really inside of it?

source

 

[davidf]

That’s bad.

 

[Vladimir]

That’s bad.

It probably works fine. Just the R&D doesn't show well on these pics.

 

[Gaz37]

That’s bad.

It probably works fine. Just the R&D doesn't show well on these pics.

It may have taken thousands of man hours to decide what cheap tat to put inside that shiny box

Now go to bed please, I want the last word in this thread

 

[Gaz37]

16 mins to go

If nobody from WHF is awake to lock the thread at 04.00 I shall be claiming a moral victory over any posts after the cut off time

 

[Gaz37]

I win

 

[drummerman]

That’s bad.

It probably works fine. Just the R&D doesn't show well on these pics.

Can't find anything under Edge.

 

[Diamond Joe]

That’s bad.

It probably works fine. Just the R&D doesn't show well on these pics.

Can't find anything under Edge.

Wow that thing really does look like it's been made in a shed, bet it sounds good though.

 

[Vladimir]

I win

I overslept! *dash1*

 

[insider9]

That’s bad.

It probably works fine. Just the R&D doesn't show well on these pics.

Can't find anything under Edge.

Maybe look for Bono instead

 

[Vladimir]

That’s bad.

It probably works fine. Just the R&D doesn't show well on these pics.

Can't find anything under Edge.

Here's a review.

 

[Vladimir]

It's a repackaged £149 Denon DVD-1730.