amsync
Head-Fier
Someone in the Stax thread made a point about a comparison between the launch price of the SR-009 (I think in 2011) compared to the increased price ($6200) of the new Stax flagship X9000 that just came out and calculated that based on the CPI (consumer price index) the X9000 launch price is equivalent in inflation-adjusted price of the 009 launch price... Combine that with the (electronics) parts shortages we have seen in the past year and the fact that the CPI doesn't reflect real inflation (which can be up to 2x as much) across many industries, I think it is actually not much of an adjustment.seems the headphone mfg have raised the price of admission... wont' be long and a HD800s will be $3K ..... ah the good old days when you could buy a electrostat for $500 are gone forever
The problem is that we expect electronics to get cheaper over time because of improved techniques, methods, etc. This has been mostly true for consumer mass-produced products like an average/normal TV, but we are actually buying products here that are at the cutting edge. For each new flagship we are funding the research that had to go into it (as Audeze mentioned, the graveyard of headpads for example) which will eventually make its way back into consumer graded products once the development costs have been refined and research recuperated.
Reading Audeze's reactions it seems like really quite a lot of new R&D has gone into this major release that might not have been obviously from the Headfi video, to me at least. I really hope these new cans are going to be a winner. I am getting more excited.