Phono Stages, Prices...!

Nando I agree with you, but the same then applies to most amplifiers.

 

Couldn't agree more. Unless you'd said "always" instead of "sometimes".

 

hi tenson, yes it does overall things, o.k. we are "at least i" are not only in retail, but my concern and duty is to advice and review items that i deal with, if i think that the item does not give it's value for money then i would say as such, however as mention by dick, people will pay for (my words) for prestige,regards nando.

 

Hi Nando,

Out of interest, which phono stages do you sell?

SCIDB

 

What is this rubbish?
You seem to be blaming quad for, overpricing items because you make them cheaper and not supplying to the low end of the market.
Quad are not a diy company.
They are also not a low end company never have been.

I can make a phono stage for very little, but i could not make thousands, distribute them, advertise them, research them etc etc times 5000, for very little.

 

I suppose the moral outrage in this thread is understandable.

But it's not the manufacturers that are to blame for apparently overpriced items - it's market forces.
Hifi companies are businesses, not charities. Regardless of development and manufacturing costs, Quad will try to charge exactly the amount for their final product that will maximise their profits. If they have set the price too high for the market then they won't sell very many.
In that event anyone will be at liberty to take pleasure in that failure in the same way as Quad is at liberty to charge whatever it wants for a phono stage.

If £1000 is morally outrageous or simply too expensive for a phono amp (for me the latter is true, the former is not) then buy something else.
(Perhaps from Dom above...?)

DF

 

Custom MC input transformers £70 each, cost, and you want me to sell a whole phono stage for £200 get real! You know most of the retail price is dealer margin and VAT. I make about half as much as the dealer from a £1500 phono stage and that has to go towards marketing, R&D and overheads before i see any profit.

A really good phono stage is rocket science (I work in both fields, well not rockets but satellites if thats close enough.) Attention to detail is very important when dealing with the low levels from MC cartridges and requires specialist circuitry.

Regards

Chris Jennings

www.highendaudio.co.uk

 

phono stages

good question, as a dealer i can only advise or try to guide customers in the right direction, but if any one wants as is hell bent on a particular one, fine no choice but to abaige, i sell a lot of project ones, as i think that they are superve, "personal choice,regards nando.

 

all that i am trying to say is that i had one to try and my view on that was none satisfactury as price per sound, ok so you can make a phono stage that will cost you (inc.) labour and components for let's say £150.00 and sell it for £300.00, i think that you will sell one a day for the rest of your life, rather than once a year, nando.

 

Then why don't you? I think you would be hard pressed to make anything good for £150 including labour. Not unless you build on a large scale like Quad... and then you have to sell for more to cover your large up-front expenditure and whatever else.

 

If you build a stage for £150 and sell it for £300 you make a loss because the dealer and vat man will take £150 leaving you with nothing but your development costs!

Regards

Chris Jennings

www.highendaudio.co.uk

 

Or another valve phono preamp kit from $500, plus shipping/duty:

http://www.diyhifisupply.com/diyhs_cole.htm

They are meant to be very good.

 

hi tenson, the issue that i am trying to make "as you know" is not only about quad, but if making a phono stage is cost friendly and sounds good and also does not upset your bank balance, then as you can see there are many people in this forum that will modify certain components to make it to their taste, ehem,regards nando.

 

Quad's manufacture cost is just over 30% of the retail price (inc vat). Their break even cost is close to 50% before thinking about trade prices. Dealers certainly aren't on 60% + vat.

 

Hi Baudrillard: I saw in your ad for Minimax phono that you are getting the LCR Cole from Diyhifisupply.

Have you ordered this yet? I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts when it arrives.

(By the way, I found another LCR phono here: http://www.sacthailand.com/Amp_LCRPhono.html
Looks nice - full preamp with combined phono and passive (TVC) linestage but think phono MM only at the moment. Built to order and it costs $3500 )

 

That thing looks lovely

 

It does dosen't it They also have a lot of other lovely looking amps - GM70 (no idea what that might sound like!)

 

pixies: so that must mean quad distribute themselves with no middle man in the uk, cos theres no way any distributor would touch a 1000 unit that had first trade price of 500+vat.

theres just no margin it it for quad-distributor-retail, not at the break even you are claiming.

 

IAG (a big Chinese multinational) who own Quad, wharfdale, Tag, Audiolab do most of their own distribution throughout the world.

 

I didn't want to post on the advert itself, so thought it better to ask here...

If £1k is too much for a phono stage, how can you sleep at night when you have this advertised!!!

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=16467