[gikigill]

   
Why is this chapter taking so long? A couple of reasons. First, the title of the new chapter is The Elephant in the Room. And, as you might guess, it's a big subject. And yes, the subject is probably exactly what you'd expect. It's about price. Specifically, the insanely stratospheric prices of high-end audio--why it's so high, where it's been, where it's going, when it's justified, when it's not. You know, stuff like that.

 
Couldn't be more timely Jason, just look at the Headfi front page today.
 
I,m almost out of spending money on Personal Audio/Desktop Audio anymore. Looks like we are deep into diminishing returns at this point.

 

[45longcolt]

 
Have you not heard of the music of the spheres..?   

You mean Britney?

 

[RickB]

 
You mean Britney?

He said music.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

2016, Chapter 9:
The Elephant in the Room
 
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
 
Yes, it’s an old saying. But it’s a good one. It conjures up images of snooty, tuxedo-clad partygoers at a high-class soiree, all of them discussing the latest cause celebre or achievement du jour—you know, like the Prodigal Son is Going to Harvard, or the Doctor Daughter was just recognized by the AMA for her contributions to Medicine, things like that—and all the while a big, stinky, gray, wrinkly pachyderm tramps over the beautiful carpet, knocks over the canapé table, slurps down the entirety of the organic punch from the heirloom crystal bowl, and takes a steamy dump in the middle of the dancefloor.
 
And all this time, the Beautiful People carefully manage to never quite look at the elephant, their gaze darting past as if it didn’t exist. And their conversation never mentions the beast, ever, even as their voices have to rise above its periodic bellows. The elephant will not interrupt the Oh So Perfect Party. They will simply will it away, unsee it, retconn it from existence.
 
Until someone new comes into the room (someone who probably is wearing jeans and a fart-joke t-shirt), points at the elephant, and says, “What the hell is that thing doing here?”
 
And that, my friends, is a pretty good description of where high-end audio is today. The Grand Old Guard throws an elegant party—but they don’t want to talk about the beast that’s stomping up their dance floor.
 
The name of the beast? Price.
 
As in, big dollars. As in, bring a giant wallet. As in, too much for you, pal. As in, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. As in, if you think the prices are high this year, wait till next year.
 
Okay, I’ll say it.
 
High end audio pricing has gotten completely and utterly out of hand.
 
Yes, this is a response to my brief visit to the recent TheShow Newport. This is the show where several exhibitors commented, “Wow, you’re room is always busy. What are you doing?” This is also the show where, down the hall, an exhibitor used the phrases “stunning value,” and “a real bargain” when describing a $20,000 preamplifier—without any hint of irony. This is the show where many visitors to the Schiit/Salk room wanted to add a zero onto the end of all of our prices. Like this:
 
“How much is that integrated amp?” asks the visitor.
 
“The Ragnarok? $1699.”
 
The visitor nods. “Seventeen thousand…”
 
“Nope. Seventeen hundred.”
 
A blink and a blank look from the visitor. “Ah, what? Seventeen thous—“
 
“Seventeen hundred.”
 
The visitor looks around the room, like they’re being snookered. “Wait a second. How much are the speakers?”
 
“Twenty-eight ninety-five.” We correct him.
 
“Twenty-eight, ah, twenty-nine thousand?”
 
“No, hundred.” We sigh.
 
The visitor’s brow draws down in deep furrows. “So how much is this whole system?”
 
“Including cables, about $8600.”
 
“Eighty-six, ah, hundred—as in, under $10,000?” Asks the visitor, his voice small.
 
“Righto!”
 
And that’s when we want to explain that the electronics should cost less than the speakers, because you really should put most of your money in the transducers, but the visitor has tuned out. Apparently, it’s quite a shock to find a whole system for less than half the price of that “stunning value, bargain” preamp.
 
Now, we weren’t the only people doing affordable systems, but we were one of the few. I walked around a bit. The cheapies were all pretty much packed. Elac was standing-room-only, you couldn’t even really get in for a demo. Some of the more esoteric (read: weird-looking) high-priced rooms had good traffic. But the ones with more normal-looking gear and $50,000 monkey coffins were pretty slow.
 
I left the show in a funk. The insane pricing was so pervasive that it colored visitors’ perception of our room—to the point where they couldn’t fathom a whole system that cost less than $10,000. And, despite the clear signpost of “big traffic in cheap rooms, small traffic in expensive rooms,” nobody seemed to be putting two and two together.
 
Because, after all, if you have an elephant at a fancy shindig, it’s gonna eventually break the dancefloor, knock over all the tables, and scare the guests away.
 
Or, again, I’ll say it:
 
High prices will destroy the high-end audio market.
 
High prices mean no new audiophiles—they simply can’t afford it. High prices mean the entirety of high end has what used to be called the “Buick Disease,” where you wonder if each purchase is that customer’s last. High prices mean that high-end detractors have no end of stuff to make fun of—and scare away the high-end curious. High prices mean you’re catering to a high-maintenance group, which may eat you alive in customer support…or dictate all your future product directions.
 
Or at least that’s how I saw it.
 
And it got me wondering—am I just overreacting? Are the high end’s high prices just an illusion, brought on by the lower-every-year purchasing power of the dollar. Or are the high prices somehow justifiable, as we push forward, closer and closer to accurately reproducing a live performance?
 
Good questions. So let’s have a look.
 
 
History Says: These Prices Are Cray-zee!
 
Half a decade ago, I had a conversation with a person who wanted to start a company to make “the most expensive loudspeaker cables in the world.” Yes. That was the selling point.
 
To be clear: we’re talking $20,000-30,000 speaker cables.
 
And yes, to me, it sounded completely insane. But he brought the data that backed up his business plan. Namely, that there were over 100 different models of loudspeakers on the market that cost over $100,000. Given those prices, there was an opportunity to sell uber-priced cables into a certain percentage of installations…and that would create a very nice business.
 
That company ended up never happening, but that fact stuck with me: 100 different speaker models over $100k. 
 
Guys, this is like having 100 different supercars priced at $1 million+. Or, hell, even that might be more sensible. Or, hell, let’s just say it: it’s completely ******* insane.
 
Back when I started down this road, in the dim dark days of 1990, there was exactly one speaker model at the top of the pricing heap. Everyone knew what it was. It was the Infinity IRS V, and it cost $50,000.
 
Or, with inflation, about $91,500 today.
 
Not even 6 figures? Hell, they’re not even trying.
 
And to be clear: this was the most expensive speaker system out there, by a long shot, period. So beyond the pale that it wasn’t really a consideration; very, very few audiophiles could even think about buying them. Especially in an environment where home equity loans were crazy talk, in the real estate downturn of the time.
 
So let’s talk more-realistic-crazy, 1990 style. How about a pair of full-range electrostatics? Specifically, Martin Logan CLSes. They were $2,500.
 
Yes, $2500. As in, about $4,600 today.
 
Or how about the Carver Amazing Loudspeaker—four 12” drivers per side, plus a 6-foot-tall ribbon. (Yes, 6 FEET.) Those were $3,000. Or about $5,500 today.
 
And, let’s be clear. There was no internet direct in 1990. Those are prices for products sold through dealers, with a traditional 50% dealer markup. Sold direct, those products would cost a lot less.
 
“Wait a sec,” you’re saying. “You mean, you could get super-exotic speaker designs like that, for, like $5K? Through a dealer? What the hell happened?”
 
Exactly. What the hell happened?
 
So how about electronics? Surely there were uber-expensive electronics at the time, right?
 
Well, yes and no. Adcom was what was considered to be entry-level high-end. They sold a 2x200WPC amp for $799. Sumo was considered to be a step up, our 2x240WPC amp was $1499. That’s $1,400-2,700 today. And yes, there were more expensive options. Krell (the de facto high end of the high end of that time period) had a 50W Class A amp for $1900, but it’s big boy, the KSA250 (250W Class A), was $5700. Or, $3,500 to $10,500 today.
 
Wait a sec? Only barely into the 5 figures? In a day of $120,000 DACs, they’re not even trying.
 
And again, those were all dealer prices. Not direct. So it’s likely you could chop those prices in half if direct had been feasible.
 
And…the elephant’s offspring, something nobody seems to talk about much in audioland…consider that today, we actually have some newer, more efficient ways to put things together, like surface-mount parts. We also have high density heatsinks, which are much less expensive than their old, chunky counterparts for the same power dissipation. And parts, in general, are less expensive.
 
Yes, the actual components used to make electronics are less expensive than when I was buying them in 1990. Thank globalization, or more efficient production methods…but the bottom line is, our costs are lower. Sometimes lower even in non-constant, inflated dollars.
 
And don’t get me started on DACs. Theta’s PCM63-based DACs used four $30 D/A converters and three DSPs that cost about the same, in a chassis built like a tank with multiple transformers, boards, wiring looms, and insanely over-spec’d power supplies…and their top end was $4,000-5,000. Now, with a good stereo delta-sigma DAC with multiple built-in digital filters costing literally $2 in quantity (the AK4490), tell me why DACs based on off-the-shelf audio tech so expensive.
 
All of ths means…electronics could cost even less today.
 
Think about that. And ask yourself again: what the hell happened?
 
 
So, Are These Prices Somehow Justifiable?
 
Okay, before I get burned at the stake, let’s be clear. Some costs are justifiable. Perhaps not to the extent that some companies would like them to be, but there are certain things that just won’t ever be cheap.
 
I’m talking specifically about discrete R2R DAC designs, big power amps, and realistic speakers.
 
Discrete R2R DAC designs are a special kind of crazy. They’re, in a word, heroic. It’s a crazy, brute-force approach, using mind-bendingly expensive discrete resistors and precision switches (at least), and perhaps even reaching into oven-controlled temperatures and other efforts to increase linearity. I won’t argue whether such an approach is “right” or “wrong,” but it won’t ever be cheap. Though at least one DIY discrete R2R DAC is within the reach of almost anyone (the Soekris design), so that just became a bit of a gray area. Especially if you’re looking at a high-5-figure discrete R2R design.
 
Big power amps also are never going to be cheap. At least not unless they’re Class D. And sorry, guys, I’ve never heard a Class D design that outmatches a conventional linear amp. Yes, even the ones that claim to do so. Call it what you will—confirmation bias, whatever—but I will take a linear design over a mathematically optimized switching approximation of it. Same as I’ll take multibit over delta-sigma. But I digress. Big power amps mean big components—big power transformers full of steel and copper (these ain’t cheap, or if they are, run), big heatsinks (even high-density designs have their limits,) big output devices, big protection systems, big chassis, etc. Bottom line, it adds up. But again, it’s all relative. Does a 200WPC stereo amp need to cost $5,000? No. But it will probably be more than $500. And $50,000? Well, that’s nuts.
 
Realistic speakers. As in, speakers that can reproduce concert-level volumes and real low bass. Physics dictates that speakers like this won’t be small or cheap. Period. Especially if you want them to be accurate. Especially if you want an exotic design, like a planar, or a ribbon, or an electrostatic speaker. (And again, some will bring up DSP and room correction and throwing a billion watts of Class D power at some corrected driver arrangement in a small box, but again, call me a dinosaur, but no thanks.) Realistic speakers are going to start at 4 figures, and not at the lower end of the range…they could easily get into 5 figures. And this is the way it should be—most of your money should go into the transducer. Or at least so says this dinosaur.
 
Okay, so there are some cases where high price can be justified. This shouldn’t be surprising—expecting plastic, injection-molded speakers with $0.59 drivers to work as well as ones using $300 drivers in exotic, nonresonant cabinets is obviously notgonnahappen.com, no matter how much DSP and correction magic is applied. Inherently high cost—to a point—is not always bad.
 
But sometimes when I start ranting about the price of high-end gear, two other justifications/excuses are thrown out:
 

• We’ve made significant progress in audio reproduction, getting us closer to a live performance, and this progress is costly.
• Now, the products are so much better built, and more beautiful, and that precision and beauty is costly.

 
Now we’re getting to be on much shakier ground. Let’s address both of these statements in turn.
 
First, the “we’ve gotten closer to a live performance” claim. Hmm. Can you really say that with a straight face? Especially if you’ve been in this field for a few decades? Can you tell me to my face, with no trace of irony, that this is true?
 
I expect you can’t.
 
While I believe there has been progress towards better audio on many fronts, I don’t think we’re really much closer to fooling people that they’re listening to a live performance. Not in 2-channel, not in surround, not anywhere.
 
While I think the basic accuracy level of most systems these days is much better—better speakers thanks to better measurement, better understanding of materials and resonance, better, non-parabolic horns (in the case of compression drivers) especially—I don’t think the absolute level has changed much.
 
In fact, the average audiophile system may be less realistic than the past in terms of being able to reproduce realistic levels, especially in the bass. This is thanks largely to the current fetish for small, slim tower speakers and “lifestyle above all” systems that are tiny, convenient, do-all, and (to be frank, and IMO) not very good at doing much of anything beyond being tiny, convenient, and do-all.
 
Bottom line: physics is real. You can’t beat it. You can only cheat it.
 
Second, the claim of better-built beauty. Sure, you bet. I’ll readily concede this one. Thanks to the widespread availability of CNC milling, the historical extension of a trend towards massively overbuilt chassis that have no functional advantages, and the current fetish for machined-from-one-piece billet designs, yeah, gear can look better, fit better, and be made in more and more baroquely complex shapes than in the past.
 
And this crap costs money. Big money. I was recently shown a very elaborate faceplate that was machined from a single block of 1” thick aluminum (the whole thing was about 6” tall, 17” wide, 1” deep. The machine time on it was so extreme that it cost about as much as an Yggdrasil to produce (in 100 piece quantities.) So, you could have put the (completely non-functional) faceplate in a box and sold it for exactly the same as an Yggdrasil—$2399—at direct prices. From a dealer? Double that.
 
Yes, for a faceplate.
 
So, being a grumpy engineer, I have to ask what functionality would this faceplate add to a product? The answer won’t surprise you: absolutely none. There’s no reason this product couldn’t have a 1/8” thick painted steel faceplate…and cost over $4,000 less at retail.
 
Except, of course, it wouldn’t look as unique (I won’t say, “as good,” because to me, the faceplate was entirely hideous. But that’s a personal judgement.)
 
Or, if you wanted substantially the same look, you could die-cast the faceplate. Total cost in aluminum would be about 40 times less than the CNC nightmare. Again, you just saved over $4000 in retail cost through a dealer.
 
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Consider that I concede this point. If you want crazy-looking, overbuilt product made in tiny, tiny quantities, sure, the cost is gonna be high.
 
Just don’t expect it to perform any better.
 
 
So, What Happened?
 
What happened in high end is, to me, a story of justification.
 
In the dim dark days of high-end audio (think, tube and transformer-coupled amp days, color-tv-is-new days), prices were set largely due to technical qualifications—the ability to play louder or lower, to deliver more watts, to do so with lower noise—because we were still pushing the limits of what we could do with the technology of the day.
 
When Marantz, Sherwood, Harman started making gear, it was not really all that much more expensive than the other products out there. Price wasn’t used as a shock factor—technical capability was. Audiophiles would justify their investments (sometimes very much DIY in nature, like bass horn speakers that used entire basements as cabinets) by the technical capability—the ability to flap pants legs with bass, etc.
 
As our technical capability increased to the point where 200, 300, and higher wattage ratings were common in solid-state amps, and digital audio started making an appearance, offering perfect frequency response, zero wow and flutter, no maintenance, and a vanishingly low noise floor for just a few hundred bucks, that’s when we started to see an increasing emphasis on boutique parts and overbuilding. Does the amplifier have the right kind of capacitors in it? Does it use the latest fancy binding posts and RCA inputs? Does it use 36 devices per channel and run in Class A up to 500 watts? If it didn’t, well, it probably wasn’t high end. And, you know, those boutique parts and overbuilt output stages were not cheap…which meant prices went up. And with higher prices came more justification, because the more you spend on something, the less you want to be wrong about it.
 
Today, we’re post-boutique and post-technical-overbuilding. It’s been a long while since I’ve heard someone comment on Tiffany RCA jacks or WBT binding posts or even Rubycon Black Gate capacitors. It’s also been a long time since I’ve heard about how many thousands of amps an amplifier manufacturer’s 72-device output stage can source. Instead, now all we talk about (it seems) is how slim the chassis is, how it’s milled out of a solid block of aluminum, how the finish is so good (snark: almost as good as Apple gear, for many, many times the price!), how big the touchscreen is, what kind of weird millwork profile (that’s been mathematically-generated) makes the product look unique, whether or not it takes Bluetooth input from a phone (snark: Really? Really? And double snark: which will be obsolete in a couple of years when the standard changes), how tiny everything is, what kind of room correction DSP it has, etc. And, at even higher prices, the justification continues to intensify. These systems are part of your life! Part of your DNA! You can’t be without them! No inexpensive system can even come close! How dare you even suggest it!
 
Higher price, higher neurosis. Remember, humanity is not a rational animal. It is a rationalizing animal. And when you’ve put a significant chunk of your net worth into a machine that plays music (as opposed to, say, shelter or transportation), you better bet you have just bought into a significant neurosis.
 
And with that, we’re now in a self-sustaining loop, where price is the only metric.
 
Oh, you have a $50,000 speaker system?
 
Mine is $100,000.
 
Ah, well, $100K isn’t really the end-all be-all, mine is $500K.”
 
Guys, this is ludicrous. And it drives a destructive feedback loop. Higher prices mean lower production numbers. And lower production numbers mean higher prices. And higher prices mean lower production numbers.
 

---

Aside: lower production numbers mean higher prices. Repeat this 75 times until it really hits you. Producing 100 million iPhones allows for crazy stuff like rounded glass, machined-from-solid-billet chassis, and cutting-edge displays…at semi-reasonable prices. Producing 100 amplifiers is now a huge production run for many high-end audio companies—fully one million times less than Apple’s most popular products. Make those big dogs out of billet, and now you see why mid 5-figures is a normal price these days. And when you stop to consider that some manufacturers are now producing products in 10s (not 100s, not 1000s), it’s very, very easy to see how prices get out of control. Plus, ah, dealers. You’re not going to sell a $20,000 preamp or $50,000 amp direct, sorry, no way, no how, you really need a psychologist…er, wait, I mean salesperson, to sell you on what such a machine will do for your love life.

---

 

And this feedback loop goes on and on, until you’re making, what? One $5 million dollar product for one person per year? A $50 million product? So that one person can lord it over all other audiophiles, simply on the basis of price?
 
Until…what? Until they die? And then where are you?
 
 
So What Do We Do About This?
 
Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? We need to take up arms and storm the castle!
 
Except, well, there is no castle, and there is really no need for a violent revolution. The end-game of high-end is plain for all to see—ever-increasing prices for an ever-shrinking market, until the elephant crashes all the way through the dance floor.
 
What we need to do, as manufacturers, is keep our wits. The siren call of higher prices is a huge temptation. As the super-high-end hyperinflates, the sensible high end will want to raise prices, too. Hell, they’ll be called on to raise prices.
 
Think I’m kidding? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that we should raise prices because we won’t be taken seriously if we don’t.
 
Well, here’s my response: **** you.
 
I give exactly zero ****s about being taken seriously. I care about only one thing: bringing high-end within reach of as many people as possible and building the ranks of audiophiles, so that when the ultra-high-end implosion comes, there’s plenty of sensible music-lovers out there.
 
And that’s what manufacturers can do: resist the temptation to inflate up, as the ultra-high-end bubble spirals out of control. Remember how to make an inexpensive, attractive chassis. Remember old production methods like sheet metal and casting. Remember that higher production numbers will reduce your costs. Remember to pass that along to the buyer. And consider—if you’re not already there—going direct. That’s the biggest benefit to the buyer, really, since it effectively cuts prices in half.
 
So what can you do, individually? You can, of course, choose less-expensive components. Like, well, duh. You can also be more pointed in your questioning—ask manufacturers where the cost goes. What percentage of that high price tag is the chassis versus the electronics? Hint: if it’s fancy, it’s a lot. What unique technology are they bringing to the table? If it’s off-the-shelf chips and implementation, how do they justify the cost? Hint: R&D on unique tech is a lot higher than a datasheet implementation, so R&D amortization really doesn’t fly there.
 
But there’s more. I want to do more at Schiit. So consider this our manifesto: we will continue to bring the highest-value products, at the fairest-possible margins, in the largest-quantity runs (for even lower cost) to assure that as many people can enjoy high-end audio as possible, and to grow the audience for the future. And we’ll continue to do this both in personal and desktop audio, and in the world of speaker amps, preamps, and other gear, as we can. You’ll see our 2-channel products this fall, and, if the reaction of various industry people is to be believed, they may have an even bigger impact on that market than we have on the desktop.
 
Because, you know what? We need to do more than talk about the elephant. Talking is only the start. What we really need to do is get the thing out of the room, entirely.
 
Here’s to a sane, affordable, and high-end future!

 

[Ableza]

I bought my first "high end" system in 1978.  ESS AMT-1b speakers, McIntosh C28 preamp, Phase Linear 700-II amplifier, and Thorens turntable with Grado G1+ cartridge.  I think the entire setup cost around $6000, which was about the same as a nicer new car in those days.

 

[45longcolt]

Jason, I wish you were running for president this year. Seriously.
 
You've put your finger on a central, complex issue. The shift away from music reproduction to status/marketing/psychology/voodoo. Far too many companies are targeting those deluded folk who seek exclusivity above all else, no matter the venue. And a simple way to capitalize on that urge is to price your stuff cynically, pushing the envelope of what the market will bear. Good idea long term? Probably not, but these sharks are often thinking no farther ahead than the next quarterly report.
 
Who makes it possible? The buyers, of course. One can hope people wake up, but I wouldn't count on it. In the meantime, I and other sane folk will continue to support Schiit. Thanks again for your great products and your perspective.  

 

[madwolfa]

  High end audio pricing has gotten completely and utterly out of hand.

 
I think it's a general trend on a luxury market nowadays. Replace "audio" with cars, watches, <whatever other expensive hobby there is> and you have an idea...
 
Thanks for an excellent chapter!

 

[crazychile]

Telemarketers. We all hate 'em. We all wish they would drop off the face of the planet. Why do they still exist?  Because someone answers those calls and buys a good or service. Not just one lone moron, but enough morons to make it profitable. So Telemarketing continues.
 
The same applies to statospherically priced audio gear. Enough people buy it to make it profitable. The trend will continue as long as people keep buying. This will continue until attitudes change. Companies like Schiit are starting to change these perceptions and sway people back to reality.
 
I remember those Infinity IRS V speakers and was able to listen to them at the Summer CES back around 1988. I was just getting into high end audio back then but was pretty impressed. I think they may have even gone up in price to around $65K before they were discontinued. Even then their price probably wasn't too ludicrous given that those EMIT and EMIM components weren't cheap and they used a lot of 'em. The Brazillian Rosewood cabinets surely cost a bunch too. Even though it was a statement product, I'd still like to think they used a cost-plus pricing strategy as opposed to the pricing models that the ultra-high end uses today.
 
I sold the mentioned Adcom amp back in those days too. It wasn't the most transparent sounding amp but it was a reliable beast and I sold dozens of those in a relatively small market. They never broke with the exception of the occasional bad power switch. It was definitely the amp to buy if you wanted to spend less than a grand.

 

[sludgeogre]

Best post yet, and that is saying a lot. This is very, very important to the audiophile world. Again, I really hope that Schiit spreads the transducer love around at these shows and showcases some other USA made speakers that have the same idea of value and sensible engineering. Too many people are focused on speakers that might be pretty, but sound terrible. Again, Ascend Acoustics really showcases this philosophy in full and I hope to see these two companies take the two channel and surround sound market by storm in the next few years. 

 

[samgamegie]

I say amen to that article, congratulations, it's really well written! I thinks it's nice and refreshing to actually see you address specifically that "Elephant in the room".
Another factor you didn't talk about is also the influence of audiophile reviewers. A lot of them really try to justify the insane prices of the gear they test, hell they even go to the point of saying "It's worth every penny" talking about a 50K amp!!!
The logic there seems to be always the same : the more expensive the product, the better. So, they help people justify buying expensive gear.
 
The last time I visited a high-end audio dealership here in Quebec, I was told THE RULE : "You should spend as much on the electronics as your speakers". In other words, if I would buy a pair of speakers for 8000$ I should spend at least 8000$ on electronics without even trying to justify that price tag !!!
This is when I said to myself that never in a million years would I spend so much money on audio gear!!
 
So my thanks to Schitt for doing something about that by bringing the best value to us customers!

 

[RazrLeaf]

This line of thinking is part of why I'm inclined to trust Schiit's pricing. With most other manufacturers, I usually second-guess their MSRP, and question if they're worth that much.  But reading through the stories of Schiit's design process, and philosophy, I feel like I can trust you guys to charge a fair price, one that gives your company a fair profit, and that provides fair value to the buyer.
 
Keep on pioneering, and may others emulate your success, and improve upon your shortcomings.

 

[jsiegel14072]

 So, after a week of frantic work, we have heatsink samples coming our way next week (not the 8-12 weeks I was afraid of), and the vastly-different PC board is laid out, and sent out for 5-day turn. This means that we have a real chance of meeting our original production schedule.
 
Aaannd...in the process of scrapping the first prototype, the amp got a lot better. In addition to losing the fan (so no fan noise, ever), it gained several very nice features, including dual-mono topology from the transformer secondaries onward (so big transients on one channel will have less effect on the other) and a few other neat tricks which I'll talk about later.
 
All the best,
Jason

 

[noshortcuts]

......  
I give exactly zero ****s about being taken seriously. I care about only one thing: bringing high-end within reach of as many people as possible and building the ranks of audiophiles, so that when the ultra-high-end implosion comes, there’s plenty of sensible music-lovers out there.
 
.....  
Here’s to a sane, affordable, and high-end future!

Love it. Thank you!
You (and previously Jim Salk) have convinced me there are companies (even in the audiophile market) that are run by intelligent yet authentic and trustworthy people who care about quality over quantity, value over vanity, and people (employees and customers) over profits.

 

[jacal01]

High end/priced speaker... er, 2-channel systems is what lead to the popularity of headphone systems in the first place.  Same fidelity system for 1/10th the price.  Alas, the now vibrant HP audio market seems to be now following in that well blazed footpath, now that the smell of potential bucks to be made is in the air.   That comes under the old saying of "Kill the golden goose..." once and for all.
 
Well, maybe not you guys...  

   

 

[radicus]

Jason = Hodor