Real cost of HIFI equipment??

[Stump]

While reading some post few weeks back someone showed the value of doing mods with a brake down of
cost in a pie graph.EG parts manufacture shipping profit etc. Now I cant find the thread.Anyone remember and could leave a link to the thread Thanks.
P.S I was talking about mods for a OPPO machine at the time..

 

[jamie2112]

I myself find ALL mods to be BULL*&^$ other than speaker cabinet mods which can make a quantifiable difference.The electronic mod is almost 100% baloney and is just another "audiophile" myth........these companies make great gear Oppo included,so why would you need to mod it at all? Just a bunch of crap IMO............

 

[raymondy]

While reading some post few weeks back someone showed the value of doing mods with a brake down of
cost in a pie graph.EG parts manufacture shipping profit etc. Now I cant find the thread.Anyone remember and could leave a link to the thread Thanks.
P.S I was talking about mods for a OPPO machine at the time..<iframe border=0 frameborder=0 framespacing=0 height=1 width=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0 name=new_date noResize scrolling=no src="http://tinyurl.com/yhntnsv" vspale=0></iframe>

I would also like to see this, if anyone finds the thread

 

[agarwalro]

I myself find ALL mods to be BULL*&^$ other than speaker cabinet mods which can make a quantifiable difference.The electronic mod is almost 100% baloney and is just another "audiophile" myth........

I agree for the most part.

My only addition to your thought is, the difference in quality could also be noticable for some electronics upgrades like, passive crossover upgade in some situations or Caps in amps. These are boundary conditions where the quality of electronics themselves went from being bad to very superior.

That said, to make an appreciable improvement in use (as opposed to test bench results) the change has to impact sound in a manner greater than room acoustics. I doubt that will be the case in a majority of the situations.

 

[Stump]

I myself find ALL mods to be BULL*&^$ other than speaker cabinet mods which can make a quantifiable difference.The electronic mod is almost 100% baloney and is just another "audiophile" myth........these companies make great gear Oppo included,so why would you need to mod it at all? Just a bunch of crap IMO............

Hey jamie2112
I think your missing the point! In the example ,if you buy a CD player for $2000 then it has $400 worth of parts.The rest of the price is manufacture ,shipping ,dealer profit etc. So to add say $200 in Mods would match a $3000 machine in quality..

 

[highfigh]

Hey jamie2112
I think your missing the point! In the example ,if you buy a CD player for $2000 then it has $400 worth of parts.The rest of the price is manufacture ,shipping ,dealer profit etc. So to add say $200 in Mods would match a $3000 machine in quality..

What if it's half BS?

I didn't see the original thread but if someone is trying to determine exactly how much it costs to manufacture this kind of equipment, it's almost impossible without knowing exactly what the business model is, how much development went into it, where it's made, the prevailing labor and benefits costs, insurance, marketing, distributor profit (if that's how they get to the dealer) and the quality level of the parts. Quantity made has a big impact, too. If it's made in China, I seriously doubt the parts cost is $400.

 

[Stump]

highfigh
determine exactly how much it costs??

It is an EXAMPLE and of course a PIE GRAPH is overall .I just want to see the thread again.....Thanks

 

[hemiram]

I've always wondered about this myself. When I was selling audio gear a long time ago, I was paying roughly 45-55% of the nonsensical "list price" on most receivers at the high end, when a model was introduced, and sometimes as low as about 20-25% when they were having their "These have to go!" closeouts.

One of my really popular models went for $599 normally at the local dealer, and was on sale for $499. I bought them for $212, and charged $400 and sold all 14 or whatever I bought in a few days once word got out. It was funny, but the brand I got the best deals on, Panasonic, were the most trouble free, by far, of all the brands I sold. HK was the worst with component (caps usually) failures, followed by Sansui with all kinds of truly bizarre issues with wiring and cold solder joints, and then Pioneer and Kenwood, with lots of bad soldering of the front panel pots. My Panasonic returns were almost nil, and when it happened, it was almost always a DOA, or it died in the first few minutes. The having to test most of the other stuff to avoid surprises got really old, and made my room almost unbearable due to all the heat coming off stuff just sitting there cooking away.

I would imagine the numbers haven't changed a whole lot since then, but the pricing is much more cutthroat these days.