candlejack
Headphoneus Supremus
Discussing company profit margins is not something I consider taboo, but maybe we shouldn't do it in relation to the topic of unit variation. I think it detracts from the main issue. I wanted to get that out of the way because I'm about to say something about company profit margins.
I was talking not too long ago with someone who is selling IEMs for a living and I was basically bitching about 64 Audio having absurd and unjustifiable prices (not that I was interested in any of their offerings at the time). I was arguing that their drivers are essentially COTS parts and aluminum shell manufacturing costs peanuts, so my only conclusion was that actually making a unit must be quite cheap (even if they are assembled in the US or EU). Therefore the company must be charging a huge premium for its design work, or is simply applying a "luxury product" marketing scheme: "the more it costs, the better it must be (, right?)" Well, this guy told me that as far as he knows 64 Audio is very inefficient in their manufacturing and it actually costs them a lot to make one IEM and this also reflects in the distributor/reseller prices. So much so that he actually makes quite a bit more profit selling one Andromeda than one Tia Fourte. I for one don't buy it, not that I don't believe the guy, but the company has just as much reason to bull him to justify the high prices as they do the customer/end user. And "inefficient" is a lot more acceptable to most people than "greedy".
I was talking not too long ago with someone who is selling IEMs for a living and I was basically bitching about 64 Audio having absurd and unjustifiable prices (not that I was interested in any of their offerings at the time). I was arguing that their drivers are essentially COTS parts and aluminum shell manufacturing costs peanuts, so my only conclusion was that actually making a unit must be quite cheap (even if they are assembled in the US or EU). Therefore the company must be charging a huge premium for its design work, or is simply applying a "luxury product" marketing scheme: "the more it costs, the better it must be (, right?)" Well, this guy told me that as far as he knows 64 Audio is very inefficient in their manufacturing and it actually costs them a lot to make one IEM and this also reflects in the distributor/reseller prices. So much so that he actually makes quite a bit more profit selling one Andromeda than one Tia Fourte. I for one don't buy it, not that I don't believe the guy, but the company has just as much reason to bull him to justify the high prices as they do the customer/end user. And "inefficient" is a lot more acceptable to most people than "greedy".