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| Headphone Amps (full-size) Discussion of desktop headphone amps. |
11-28-2005, 12:26 AM
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Junior Head-Fi'er
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
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Why are headphone amps so costly?
As the title says. They're just amps after all! Some cost more than headphones themselves! 
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11-28-2005, 12:31 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: CT, USA
Posts: 1,755
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add up the parts... thats usually a majority of the cost.
Now look at the jacks and knobs and switches... they're expensive
now take into consideration the amount of labor put into casework... and appriciate the value of tools used
What wire was used? How much was the minimum order on the wire?
how much is someone's time worth? they may have spent hours on this thing just soldering up the board or even more creating and troubleshooting the board
+ wouldnt you like to make a bit of profit after all this?
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11-28-2005, 12:31 AM
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500+ Head-Fi'er
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Join Date: Jan 2005
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Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, so little do you know.  Actually I don't know either. Electronics are expensive, I guess. As a matter of fact who really knows why headphones can cost that much.
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11-28-2005, 12:42 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 2,635
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There is not a high demand for them and they are not mass-produced.
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11-28-2005, 12:52 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2,152
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I'm guessing amplifiers like the Benchmark's, Grace Design's, ESI's,
Behringer's, m-Audio's, and Apogee's, and Edirol's are mass produced. They still cost quite an expensive penny. All amplifiers cost a lot, be it for headphones, speakers, or electonic instruments. So why are turntables, CD players, DVD players, mixers, etc. expensive? Same principle. They take a lot of design work and production costs are high, especially since audiophiles pay for anything to experience more.
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11-28-2005, 01:16 AM
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Junior Head-Fi'er
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
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I dunno people; correct me where I am wrong.
Research: I don't know how much money is spent here; but I think it is not a lot, especially for second and third generation versions of the product line.
Parts: Do they even add up to a quarter/third of the sale price? For mass-produced equipment, they are sourced in bulk, right?
Assembly: I am sure (most of) these products are not assembled by hand, are they? They're just printed circuit boards soldered by robots (?). I am guessing only a part of the physical assembly process is done by hand.
Marketing/Packaging: Teensy bit, I am sure.
Shipping: Generally mentioned and charged separately from the sale price of the product.
Profit: You tell me.
Well, if 'audiophiles' are willing to pay more, then why the heck not. *shrug*
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11-28-2005, 01:22 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Saratoga, California
Posts: 3,165
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jake01
I dunno people; correct me where I am wrong.
Research: I don't know how much money is spent here; but I think it is not a lot, especially for second and third generation versions of the product line.
Parts: Do they even add up to a quarter/third of the sale price? For mass-produced equipment, they are sourced in bulk, right?
Assembly: I am sure (most of) these products are not assembled by hand, are they? They're just printed circuit boards soldered by robots (?). I am guessing only a part of the physical assembly process is done by hand.
Marketing/Packaging: Teensy bit, I am sure.
Shipping: Generally mentioned and charged separately from the sale price of the product.
Profit: You tell me.
Well, if 'audiophiles' are willing to pay more, then why the heck not. *shrug*
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Ok firstly, not very amp has a second or third generation and depending on the change, a simple mod of an existing blueprint may or may not work. Also realize that fundamentally most amp buisnesses are botique shops so a factory/assembly line isn't goning to happen. Alot of the time the "shop" is just one guy or at best, a few. And yes, alot of the time it is assembled by hand. And how much do you think labor costs? It isn't that cheap, buddy.
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11-28-2005, 01:24 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Urbana, IL
Posts: 1,971
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The only thing on this issue that I can remember is Tyll saying that HeadRoom stuff costs 3x that of parts+labor, and this is not high compared to other manufacturers.
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11-28-2005, 01:27 AM
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500+ Head-Fi'er
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 973
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It's all about supply and demand. Because the demand is not high, neither is the supply, so only hobbyists and gentlemen like Ray Samuels build amps. Even "big" companies like Rega make only one or two models of headphone amps, so they must sell high in order to make profits.
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11-28-2005, 01:47 AM
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1000+ Head-Fi'er
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Melbourne Australia
Posts: 1,189
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supply + demand accounts for reasons why they cost so much out there in the world.
With DIY designs the price is mostly the parts. A basic M3 costs about 200-220 in parts alone, for instance. More if you tweak it up. The thing is a lot of time and effort goes into building it..
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11-28-2005, 01:53 AM
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100+ Head-Fi'er
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 275
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Probably because they're so exclusive.
I'd guess given tooling (most amps are probably made from generic cases or cases that are pre-formed and require minimal machining), cost of components, etc, the average amp is worth about 1/2 the selling price in terms of components.
So the rest goes towards $$ in the pocket. But if someone sells 2-3 amps a week, that's barely an average living. But if they have a full time job and do it on weekends, then it's a pretty good hobby.
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11-28-2005, 01:54 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: United States
Posts: 3,187
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DIY all the way for me!
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11-28-2005, 01:57 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Princeton, NJ (no I'm not in college)
Posts: 1,900
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by PFKMan23
Ok firstly, not very amp has a second or third generation and depending on the change, a simple mod of an existing blueprint may or may not work. Also realize that fundamentally most amp buisnesses are botique shops so a factory/assembly line isn't goning to happen. Alot of the time the "shop" is just one guy or at best, a few. And yes, alot of the time it is assembled by hand. And how much do you think labor costs? It isn't that cheap, buddy.
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Exactly. You have to design something in the first place before you can have a new generation! These things don't come out of thin air. Also, alot of what you are paying for is the time spent building and developing them.
Most of them are handmade, not put together by robots on an assembly line.
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11-28-2005, 01:58 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Richardson, TX
Posts: 2,138
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They are as expensive as they are, because that's what the market will bear.
Look at the parts on a Cmoy. You can build one for <$40, and they get the parts a lot cheaper than you do. Also look at the Go-Vibe. Nice cheap amp.
There is no reason for audio cables to sell for more than a few dollars. People are silly, and will pay massive amounts for them.
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11-28-2005, 02:01 AM
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Headphoneus Supremus
Moderator
Prefers "stereo weirdo" to "audiophile"
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: I live in the midrange!! (Metro Detroit Area)
Posts: 7,997
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I think that this is all relative...think about the cost of the best available headphone amps, vs the best available speaker amps. The HeadRoom Balanced MAX, for example, can be equiped with a DAC. This is a relative bargain when compared with the cost of a top-flight balanced amp and DAC.
I happen to think that headphone audio is a real bargain by comparison...so I guess I'm not sure where you're coming from here. Maybe it's a comment on the parts cost vs actual cost of audio equipment in general?
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