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RE: In What Way Are dCS Overpriced?

Posted by Tony Lauck (A) on January 26, 2014 at 06:37:07

In Reply to: RE: In What Way Are dCS Overpriced? posted by PAR on January 26, 2014 at 02:23:09:

The best stereo recordings are made with a few microphones, sometimes just a Blumlein pair, going through a microphone preamplifier to a converter. The big bucks of fancy studios are needed to produce processed recordings which can be fixed in post production to sound very good, but the really excellent recordings are made directly in such a way that they are what they are, and with skill and luck these will be excellent (but only on a properly set up high quality playback system). In any event, I was comparing the costs of converters, not the cost of other components in the record - playback chain. If you throw in microphones, then you have to throw in speakers, etc., for an apples to apples comparison.

One other pricing consideration is marketing strategy. Many companies produce two product lines based on the same technology, directed respectively to the professional audio marketplace and to audiophiles. It is common for these companies to charge considerably more for the same "guts" when put into a fancy looking case and sold to consumers. There are various reasons for these price discrepancies, but the most likely explanation in any given case is that they get away with higher pricing when selling to non-technical customers who are more easily fooled and who view their components as badges of social status (Veblen goods) rather than as working tools used in a business. (I have not looked at dCs pricing, so I don't know if they are playing this game. I do know there are other converter manufacturers who have done this.)

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

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