Note: this is not the usual discussion about adding up the cost of parts in a product. That’s been beaten to death, resurrected and killed again way too many times… I’m approaching the pricing issue from a different angle:

My question has to do with the relative pricing of products in different markets. Take two DACs as an example:

Benchmark DAC1
&
Rega DAC

In the US both DACs sell for $1K and hence are direct competition for each other. There is already loads of talk about whether the new Rega DAC is better than the Benchmark (and any other $1K DACs).

On the other hand, In the UK, the Rega sells for 500GBP while the Benchmark goes for 950GBP. Thus they are not direct competition (they are in completely different price categories). The questions over there tend to be more how close does the Rega get to Benchmark level performance at half the price?

The reason for the differences in prices in the US versus UK is likely due to local duties and taxes. However, that does not explain the difference in perceived quality. Either the Benchmark should be regarded as poor value for money in the UK or the Rega should be seen as poor value in the US. Yet neither is the case. WHY?

In general US products sell for a lot more in the UK, relative to UK brands. Yet I see no evidence that the US products are seen as poor value compared to UK offerings… Also in the US, there is no evidence that UK products are seen as poor value compared to US offerings….

So based on these findings; I could take any decent speaker selling for $2K (PSB Imagine T for example), jack the price up to $4K and it would be competitive against $4K speakers. Since most of us claim that there are improvements in sound quality to be gained from spending more money, then shouldn’t it be obvious to consumers and reviewers that the Imagine T is out of its depth at $4K?

Just check out the relative prices and reviews for US and CDN products on UK sites such as What HiFi? & HiFi Choice. In addition to the Benchmark, you'll see rave reviews for Krell, Parasound Halo, Revel Performa, Totem, etc, despite being up against much higher levels of competition than they face in the US.

www.whathifi.com & www.techradar.com

(Note: Stereophile is reviewing the Rega this month, if I'm not mistaken, so I'll be anxious to see if they regard it as good value for money at $1K)...