Munich Highend 2019

[Frank Dernie]

We would probably just end up boycotting most products if we really knew what they cost to make compared to what we pay.

Decades ago I worked at a Ford dealership; Ford would have a fair amount of parts shipped directly to us from their manufactures. One day one of the parts had an invoice attached that was the bill to Ford for the part. It was a small metal bracket that Ford charged us around $25 for. We would then sell that part to a body shop for around $32. The body shop would charge their customer $48.
The price that Ford paid? $2

Back when Lotus were trying to sell their active suspension technology to General Motors (who owned Lotus at the time iirc) in the '80s they were told that the 4 springs cost them $1 from their supplier and the dampers were $1 each. The Lotus used 4 Moog servovalves which were $1000 each. They would have got cheaper if tooled for mass production but at that stage they accepted it was going to only be on more expensive cars (and still hasn't made it to market).
On the subject of audio I was told when I worked for Garrard that with the exception of the platter of a 401 which was machined on a gear cutting machine, the most expensive component to make was the instruction manual...

 

[LTig]

Just filled the reserved posts with more info:

• Horn Speakers
• Pointsource Speakers
• DIY and Other Ramblings

Have Fun!

 

[Soniclife]

Interesting write ups, thanks.

99.9% of the cables

What made the 0.1% cut?

 

[Soniclife]

Back when Lotus were trying to sell their active suspension technology to General Motors (who owned Lotus at the time iirc) in the '80s they were told that the 4 springs cost them $1 from their supplier and the dampers were $1 each. The Lotus used 4 Moog servovalves which were $1000 each. They would have got cheaper if tooled for mass production but at that stage they accepted it was going to only be on more expensive cars (and still hasn't made it to market).

Is this ever likely to come to market? I remember reading gushing reviews of how great it was in the 80s, it sounded amazing, it made sense, but so far no real products, not even on very expensive cars using it as a differentiator. Is it possible that even it it works better that the market does not like it because it's not like the old way, and it feels wrong until you adjust, which takes to long on a demo?

 

[Juhazi]

...

• Hedd Tower Mains: before I could say that there was too much bass the demo man already excused this with the speakers being too close to the wall (that was in open space, not in a dedicated listening room)http://www.hedd.audio/en/studio-monitors/

View attachment 26189



... I did not like:

• 
  
• 99.9% of the cables
• Cable supports

Time to bed ...

LTig - are these the 1 promille of cables that you liked? They are black and obviously adequate length. Nice to see something this radical at Munich show!

 

[Frank Dernie]

Is this ever likely to come to market? I remember reading gushing reviews of how great it was in the 80s, it sounded amazing, it made sense, but so far no real products, not even on very expensive cars using it as a differentiator. Is it possible that even it it works better that the market does not like it because it's not like the old way, and it feels wrong until you adjust, which takes to long on a demo?

I don’t think so. It is super sophisticated but far too expensive for even expensive cars. Several upmarket cars have some sort of optional air suspension which probably gets near enough at quite a high price premium.

 

[cjfrbw]

Let's see...

My "cost of labor" - about $0.00

Fortunately, my employers saw it differently, for whatever reason.

What about the cost of hot pockets, instruments, and coffee?

 

[LTig]

LTig - are these the 1 promille of cables that you liked? They are black and obviously adequate length. Nice to see something this radical at Munich show!

Yep, those and the ones used by Grimm. Didn't saw those used by Kii.

 

[LTig]

Interesting write ups, thanks.

What made the 0.1% cut?

That I wasn't able to inspect each booth and check each cable on display. What I actually saw belonged to the 99.9% though

 

[FrantzM]

Back when Lotus were trying to sell their active suspension technology to General Motors (who owned Lotus at the time iirc) in the '80s they were told that the 4 springs cost them $1 from their supplier and the dampers were $1 each. The Lotus used 4 Moog servovalves which were $1000 each. They would have got cheaper if tooled for mass production but at that stage they accepted it was going to only be on more expensive cars (and still hasn't made it to market).
On the subject of audio I was told when I worked for Garrard that with the exception of the platter of a 401 which was machined on a gear cutting machine, the most expensive component to make was the instruction manual...

Yeah! But this seriously better Garrard 401 @ $18,795 is manufactured better by better engineers and better material for a more better PRAT... I am sure it chas to cost more than the instruction manual

 

[Tks]

About the Auralic:

and is claimed to upgrade both "the processing power and the original performance envelope" of the DAC. Auralic's press literature says that by handling a DAC's data processing burden, the Sirius G2 "dramatically reduces the amount of distortion and jitter" of a DAC in its sweet spot, regardless of the incoming resolution of the file.

Its Proteus G2 processing platform is FPGA-based; if used with a chip-based DAC, "it bypasses the processing of the DAC itself," Brinkman said. The unit can output PCM up to 32/384 and DSD up to 512 on multiple outputs; it can even output DSD over USB.

To the first quote.. okay, but why?

To the second quote, how?

 

[Frank Dernie]

Yeah! But this seriously better Garrard 401 @ $18,795 is manufactured better by better engineers and better material for a more better PRAT... I am sure it chas to cost more than the instruction manual
View attachment 26209

Well it doesn’t have a gear hobbed set of strobe rings, so maybe not

 

[Aaron Garrett]

No, sorry. I was in a hurry because I was there for one day only and there was so much to see and hear.

And the opposite is probably true as well.

Michael Lavorgna likes all of them, and Zu. Herb Reichert too (https://www.stereophile.com/content/herbs-second-report-munich). I think the DeVore probably sound great on certain kinds of music -- for example Marc Ribot or something like that -- but is really restricted in what it sounds good on and it sounded compromised on a lot of music I value. Consequently not my kind of loudspeaker.