[JaZZ]

Hopefully my Corda blue will arrive still this week! I was also infected by kelly's review, and now that I read these comments, it's hard to wait.

 

[Flasken]

Now that I re-read my post, I understand how it would seem to some that I was sort of attacking Kurt.. If anyone took it that way I'm really sorry, that wasn't my intention at all...

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly I think he would agree with me, though, that he could not produce an amp commercially to include the components Kurt did for a price as low as Kurt's. Kurt is doing this for fun, isn't paying himself much for labor and has no overhead. The parts are very expensive and for Meier to include them, the price of the Corda would be raised dramatically. Mods are often a good value for this reason but especially so in this case.

- Maybe you are right... But that would be really odd!!

In my point of view, a "blue" produced by meier himself would probably cost less than what you receive from Kurt plus what you paid Jan for the HA-1 itself... Why?? Well, there are several points...

Corda Modified to Corda Blue by Kurt:

- Component costs from Jan
- Jan's personal fee
- SHipping from Jan
- Shipping to Kurt
- Components replaced (original ones wasted)
- Kurt's personal fee
- SHipping back to you

Corda Blue by Jan:
- Component costs from Jan
- Jan's personal fee
- Shipping from Jan


Also, Jan probably wouldn't want to make more money on the more expensive version... With the modded you pay for two persons fees.

How can the Kurt route be cheaper? (I'm not saying that it would be possible to buy the blue from Jan.. Just responding to your post, Kelly, which I don't really understand.)

 

[Flasken]

Quote:

Originally posted by ChenaynayC Anyway, I certainly don't mean to take away anything from the stock Corda. Hell, I liked it plenty and I'd still recommend it for folks looking to spend 300-400 for an amp. And if/when they get curious about 'how good can it get' - there's Kurt to move 'em on.

Great, I just thought appreciation of the Corda was missing a bit in this thread... Now it's all there. Go Jan!!

 

[kelly]

Flasken

As I said, Kurt has a hobby and Jan has a business. Jan would not want to alter is profit model so that would be one way it would be higher. You might think Jan would get a better part discount because of volume sales, but would the volume really be very high for this model? I doubt it--so the prices would be about the same for that. Jan has a team of people (see his website), each get paid to do a job. This cost must be factored in and, again, is probably more than Kurt alots in labor for himself.

Kurt does the mods using his own hands with his own tools in his own home. The overhead is simply much smaller.

For Jan to do something, the price/performance ratio has to be higher. This means he can't use things like Cardas jacks that people like me want even though the sonic improvement is marginal at best. Jan has to be able to sell a certain volume of units to make his investment in design and production worthwhie. Jan also has to focus on things that are easy to implement and easy for his staff to assemble. His current model also includes support for kit versions. If you look at what is inside the Corda Blue, you know that some of the work (the FETs and heatsinks especially) are more tedious than you would want in a production amp.

 

[Flasken]

??

I think we have very different ideas of what Jan's business is about. I thought it was a hobby that turned into a small business, like building amps are for the diy'ers of head-fi. I thought he only built amps to keep his business going, and mostly for fun. Some of his designs are actually completely profitless for him (re: analoguer).

Yet it sounds like you compare meier-audio to headroom, which seems VERY wrong to me. I think his business is much closer to that of the head-fi DIY'ers like JMT, Kurt etc.. On a larger scale, yes, but not at all comparable to headroom. Atleast not in my book.

 

[kelly]

Flasken
Some day you must learn the shades of grey in life. Things are not so simply divided into two categories.

I don't believe I've misportrayed Meier Audio to consider it a legitimate business. At this point, I've done all the explaining I can do and we'll just have to agree to disagree.

 

[Flasken]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly Flasken Some day you must learn the shades of grey in life. Things are not so simply divided into two categories.

Oh, like when I grow up and develop a brain of my own? Thanks kelly.