CRESCENDOPOWER, I've got to appologies to you for not being in a position to answer your post before the thread got turned off. I read it as an opportunity to tell people what was so good about our amps---which is something we should be able to do at the drop of a hat, as you pointed out--and not as you performing a trolling excersize. So, do me a favor and ask it again in our forum and I'll answer you.
Good form requires me to talk generally about the subject of pricing, and not about HeadRoom specifically, in this forum area. The current consumer environment out there makes price the number one factor in attracting sales. I think this is a distructive situation given the normal recations of people and companies. Consumers will tend to vote with their dollars for companies that do the best job of putting tantalizing prices in front of people at the expense of supporting companies that have slightly higher prices but have customer service policies that tend to treat people more fairly. One of the big problems today is the Wal-Marts of the world are able to do an amazing job of pulling off both low prices and amazing customer returns policies. In the face of that kind of performance it is very easy to people to develope the impression that a retailer is either "ripping you off" with higher prices or are "sleaze bags" for not providing good service. The truth is that the big American discount retailers have won the consumer economy race, and all other retailers will be measured by a level of performance achievable only with enormous economies of scale.
OR!
You decide to sell premium product that doesn't fit well into discount economics. I believe that consumers are beginning to shift their focus and not be so enamoured of stuff-for-stuff's-sake and have begun to buy on quality. My son is a skateboarder and he'll live in ratty jeans and cheap t-shirts but when it comes to his board of his tools of fun he saves up and buys quality. I think I see this a lot in younger people who have appeared to have learned to be reviled by the gluttonous, debt generating consumption of the last 20 years, and are willing to live more simply with fewer product of higher quality.
Headphones kind of straddle the line---a BlockHead is clearly a premium product while a Koss KSC50 is clearly a mass consumer product. I believe sales success in the on-line headphone business is VERY sensitive to price and it's not something to be played around with willy-nilly. While I do think you'll see large price fluctuations occur from time to time on particular products, I also think you'll see moderate but relentless downward and broadly equalizing and stabilizing presure on price as the machinery of on-line selling becomes better understood and global pricing issues become better controlled.
Bottom line: I think the outlook is good for quality headphones. I think people will always love music and will allways have two ears, one on each side of the head. I think personal mobility and open office plans will provide continuing perception of need for headphones. And I think the real value equation of good headphones will continue to make them an attractive chioce for consumers even in the face of a wide array of places to focus their discretionary spending. But consumers will also be very wary of price and will continue to look for good prices. My guess is that premium retailers may be able to get 5% above low-ball prices, but if they go up to 10% higher prices they won't get the order volumes to grow and gain economies of scale.
