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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: When does a better mouse trap turn distasteful carboncopy cloning? posted by Srajan Ebaen (R) on July 8, 2003 at 08:59:14:
This is an interesting question, however, in the computer industry this type of behavior is very common and just part of "competition". The simple fact is that 47labs is playing for a type of cult status in which less is more, zen blah blah, and making you pay thousands for a complete amp on a chip that costs very little from the chip manufacturer (National Semicondutor I believe). It is not considered unethical behavior in most industries to copy a design that isn't patented, in fact in the pharmaceutical industry the minute the patent runs out on an important drug there are companies churning out generics for much much less and the original company usually all but gives up this drug to focus on the protected ones. The fact that the generic is a reversed engineered product doesn't seem to bother anyone. You see this copying also in the auto industry (look at the recent and ongoing SUV rage). I personally think its great that someone refined their DIY design enough to make a commercial product even if it were an EXACT copy of the 47labs (not hard when using a monolithic chip amplifier). I would say that the $1795 price tag was still milking it quite a lot. I don't feel terribly sorry for 47labs when they are charging so much for so little and simple inspection of the amp allows people copy with ease. Try copying a Passlabs amp, or a Rowland, or especially an Audio Research amp. The reason why no one makes a cheap copy of these is because you CAN'T make a cheap copy. Tubes alone for an ARC amp run over $1000 nevermind the transformers or the chasis to support such weight. If 47labs can't compete because they are too high priced and this invites people to copy then that's too bad. They probably just copied the design in the App notes from National Semiconductor anyway. So who is copying who??
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Follow Ups
- Re: When does a better mouse trap turn distasteful carboncopy cloning? - morricab 14:47:35 07/09/03 (0)
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