HI guys!
Just join this forum as i saw an thread on our speakers witch is fantastic!
Should you have any questions to our products and development i will try my best to answer your questions
As for the cost breakdown provided by 617, its correct that the drivers cost is far from the asking price of the speakers. But its an very unfair breakdown of what expenses a manufacturer have to a product. But i would completely agree that going DIY will give you a higher value in terms of parts cost for sure!
But to boil down years of development/engineering, tooling costs (waveguide, packeging, custom tweeter). Labor cost of assembly, test and inspections. Support, shipping cost and warranty for 10 years. These are things that usually is forgotten when doing a cost breakdown.
Being a company based in Denmark, we do have a huge benefit of having some of the most respected and talented engineers in this field. But labor cost of these are outrageous expensive. And company taxes are also sadly among the highest in the world here in Denmark
Our warehouse is actually in the same building where they engineer SB Acoustics drivers, so we work closely with them as well. We are very proud to use these drivers as they are without question the best value for money out there. To comment about the SB ARA kit: we did some A/B test with this and the S400. Its an fantastic kit that i would highly recommend! Usually kits do not have nearly the same time and attention in the development process as a finish branded speaker has. ARA is made by Ulrik that also designs the drivers, and its actually a pretty well rounded design.