[quote user="drummerman"]
... I'll add to that ... I know VdH, which I value for affordable cables, also makes an indecently expensive interconnect and some rather expensive cartridges. Figure that. Has he succumbed to the smell of money or is it really worth the cash? I doubt it even taking into account small scale, hand made manufacturing.I have'nt heard either so have to reserve judgement but there is a limit to what a cable can do (or not do, more to the point) or what a tiny cartridge made up of a very few parts should be worth. Amen
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Now I must admit I'm no cartridge/cable expert, but I have to wonder why everyone goes on about just what something can or can't apparently do for the cash without looking at what it may or may not cost the manufacturer to make it. I used to work for a manufacturer in another industry, which I won't name to protect the innocent. Our products were sold by us to retailers at prices ranging from £40 to £500, the difference in price was not just down to what each item did as they all did similar things, the differences were accounted for by a combination of, for example, design costs, testing costs, costs related to copyright and patent protection, complexity of assembly, economies of scale (we sold a lot more of the cheaper products that the expensive ones, the longer the production line remained working on one type of item the cheaper each one became), different packaging costs (people expect expensive things to be in pretty packaging- just look at Tesco Value, and Tesco Finest), because people had larger batches of the cheaper items delivered the delivery cost per item was cheaper and of course any dealer margin and VAT added would work out more expensive as a 171/2 % of £42 is only £7.35 wheras 171/2 % of £500 is £87.50. It's not just down to the materials used.