Quote Originally Posted by skeptic
20 odd years after AR and KLH, Snell reworked and tweaked Kloss' and Vilcher's 2 way 8 inch acoustic suspension design in the eighties and now 20 years later, Peter Q tweaks it again and offers it for 30 to 75 times price of the original versions as the A/N K series. Between his small production runs and his use of European materials and labor, he has the least efficient and highest cost manufacturing operation conceivable. Small wonder his products sell for prices that are beyond all belief.
BeforeI ge to this I should stay away from the hype - nothing can live up to the hype - you are not going to go in and be blown away - they are not the fireworks sound.

The Snell K sold for ~$300.00US in 1980 through to something like 1982 (with the buying power of money factors taken into account over 20 years) and the Snells used worse parts throughout. How much would that speaker have risen when sent to the UK? One reason so few North American speakers get sent to Britain is the conversion shipping costs. They now go for 6 times that figure - well so do cars and most everything else these days. A movie was $2.00 then now here they're $12 to $14

The Bryston B60 in Canada sells for $1900.00Cdn funds. The Sugden A21a which is a much better amplifier sells for $2500.00Cdn. OK this is pretty close right.

In Britain the Sugden is 999Gbp but the B60 is a whopping $1700Gbp. When British gear comes here it also gets a healhy increase in price - but the reverse is ridiculous. That's roughly $4500 - $5000.00Cdn.

It isn't how much the speaker costs to build or anything else - it's how good it is versus the competition. I can't justify to you that any piece of stereo equipment should cost more than $500.00. But Peter Q can listen to all the $2000.00US models on the market and say well hell my K kicks the crap out of those speakers so I will charge $2000.00US for it. His speaker may actually cost LESS to build - but that is more of a credit to his choices is it not? And from a parts perspective they're better than what you will find in the N805. Like real wood and silver wiring. As for the drivers we don't know the cost involved because B&W does it in house. A good businessman is the one who can sell a superior product to his competition while making more profit on the deal.

And AR and Snell should have been interested in building the best speakers not the best looking speakers - the garbage both put out today is no where near as GOOD as it once was - they decided to be businessman and put speaker quality last which is why both have practically non - existant presence today. It wasn't broke then - it isn't broke now. And they should have improved those designs not stopped production to make junk like the Snell B-Minor for 5K. That speaker alone probably had every dealer here drop the company - and AR - wow they have a few $199.00 HTIB speaker set-ups around and a bunch of also-ran products at higher prices. What happened!

You pay a premium because Audio Note is a smaller company and they build in Britain and have a more expensive labour force? Yes that's likely true. Unfortunately quality labour costs more and hand built drives a premium. Can starting up a slave labour force in China do it less - yes and maybe just as well too. They have shifted lines to Canada and may move the entire production to Canada and even have certain qualified dealers building the products to reduce costs and prices. Having the speaker built in the actual market redices costs greatly.

However despite these cost draw-backs of lower production runs and higher labour costs - they also don't have to pay millions and milllions and millions on a large labour forces, large overhead, huge marketing campigns or product literature and wining and dining reviewers or GIVING products to reviewers etc. Peter does pretty much all of it himself when it comes to getting dealers - not paying a 12 person marketing department. Which is why instead of plastic speakers you might actually get some quality parts. R&D is greatly redced because instead of trying t re-invent the wheel they take already the best design in his opinion and make it better. R&D is a funny thing manufacturers like to spout in order to justify high prices - hmm but does it sound good - it looks good on paper and ad campaigns but lets get the scost breakdown per speakers from an independant accounting firm. Try comparing a solid Oak table from 1980 to the price of a brand new solid Oak table today - yes you can go to wal-mart and get one that looks like solid oak I'm quite sure for $49.99.

Now why the E goes from $2700.00 to a $40k version well yes that's nuts. Then again compare it to other $40k speakers and maybe it's not. I mean not in relative terms because speakers should not be $40k from anyone - these things are more statement products than things expected to sell. B&W, ML and Dynaudio have such speakers. TO be taken seriously you too must have such a speaker.

Pricing is more about what the market will bare. I would be surprised if the actual cost of a speaker is 1/10 what the retail ends up being. Certainly the DM 302 for $300 Cdn would not cost more than $50.00Cdn to make - the thing was a plastic mold.

The difference is Audio Note lets you build one yourself and you know where to get all the parts to make it cheaper. Most don't allow that.

And in the end if the old Snell J sounded as good as the current AN/J Spe I can safely say that since the late 1970s early 80's NOTHING has been done in speaker technology that has bettered it musically. Mostly it has gone the other way. And for $3500.00US I'll run it up against the N801 at $14,000.00Cdn or the ~10k Martin Logan Oddysey. And then to myself and to you I ask "who are the real rippoff artists?

I should not really hype them - people Audio Note based off of what they hear - without advertising and without fashinable looks and given the high prices and all the things they LOOK to be doing incorrectly - for some strange reason people buy them - oh perhaps it has somehting to do with the music - silly shoppers - who wants something to create that from audio equipment?