John Warren

djk has been gone for 7 years! He is definitely missed.

Ask Amy.

Crown D-75 (D75) 2-Channel 35W Power Amplifier Stereo Amp Solid State U246146 | eBay

Anti-gouging laws guarantee everyone gets nothing.

How does one get "price gouged" purchasing a "luxury" item say, for example, Hi-Fi gear? By definition, isn't purchasing a luxury item an exercise in getting gouged willingly? Price gouging is real, universities and healthcare institutions are the experts.

This is what happens when the cost of necessary consumables are not "adjusted" to account for demand.

Have you gone to any audio shows lately? There's one in your own backyard this year (May?), I may even be there. I suggest you go. There are suppliers making stellar audio products utilizing optimized materials, lean manufacturing methods that leverage brilliant engineering tools and design practices. Really good hardware has always been expensive, but the product performance usually justifies the cost and limits the risk of buyer's remorse. That has ALWAYS been the case with hi-fi. Today however, the top two quintiles of the market are way better than anything made in the past.

When they were standalone companies (JBL, AR, Klipsch, Scott, Marantz, McIntosh, etc.) they were run by a small group of engineering fanatics and founders. They designed and manufactured products they themselves would buy. That was the business model, it worked. No Board of Directors, stockholders, or revenue metrics. If payroll, supplier invoices, rent, mortgages and other expenses were covered, the company survived for another quarter. Control by a Board of Directors means to design and manufacture products to maximize shareholder value, a significant departure from the business model that made the company an attractive acquisition. This requires the company name gets leveraged, placed on products that have nothing in common with the founder's vision. It's not all doom and gloom. You can still buy a decent stereo tube amp from McIntosh, the MC275 reissue is $7k, not terrible and includes tubes. JBL Pro still makes the best 15" woofer manufactured, the 2226J and the HPL models are good too.

Agreed.

A pr. of Klipschorns in 1962 were $1644. In today's USD that could be considered a "bargain" presuming that the speaker made today is as well made, using the same materials, as its 1962 equivalent. That may not be the case.

Most startups fail for one of two reasons, first is launching before the technology is fully developed. The second is assuming a business strategy, successful in an entirely different tech space, can be leverage and applied to another.

Yup. I just added a post.

Unofficial Klipsch Forum (the "UKF")

The 60th anniversary 901 non-reissue is a regurgitate of a decades old design repackaged using an uninteresting aesthetic created by a so-called "hip" design team for a vaguely identified, 40s-something buyer presumed to have no understanding of the value of money. It's a formulaic that will be repeated by others The re-issued 901 is an exceptional embodiment of the above. Decidedly dull and the answer to "what to do with a cache of 24 Quality Control rejects culled from an early 2000s (faded barcode sticker) production run of the PA version of 901s?" Affix thick top and bottom natural wood accents with gap-filling construction adhesive (because it wasn't designed for them), leverage Bose marketing machine, fabricate the vision of novelty. Zero innovation in home audio has been realized.

Impedance = resistance + reactance. Impedance = resistance when reactance =0.