While there are many snake-oil salesmen in the audio business, I am not sure that it is any worse than most other industries. Do I believe that cables make an audible difference in a high-end audio system? Yes, absolutely, 110% positive, and am more than willing to demonstate it to anyone that wants to hear. Do I believe that cables can be worth $10k or more? Usually not, but it is no more unreasonable than wristwatches that are over $100k or artistic works for the "in" artists that can go for millions. I h ...
Julian, I don't think I've ever read anything by anyone here objecting to dealers and distributors making a decent living out of their work. To work hard for peanuts is just not natural, if you ask me.
But I am a strong objector to industry practices. Mark-ups are getting out of hand. For example, it is not at all uncommon to have dealers demand 40%. Aha, you think, my price to them is say $100, they want to add $40 to the price; well, that's steep, but still managable. Then you find out that your math is all wrong - they want 40% of the total price. Which means that if your product is to cost $140, their 40% is $56, not $40. So, if you still want your $100, the price will need to be $156. Thus, they want not 40%, but 56%.
I don't know about you, but to me, a 56% markup is outrageous. And it's contageous, because the distributor also wants to play the same game the same way, but often with 50%.
You work it out. In the end, the end user is asked to pay at least 3 times the factory price, often more. I'd really love to hear an explanation why is this normal. How can it be normal for the dealer to make more money on a product than the manufacturer?
Dealers often justify this by saying they take risks. Really? And the manufacturer doesn't?
I agree with your statement that distributors have expenses, such as advertising, stocking up, etc; that's true enough, and they should be compensated and still make sane money. But don't you think it's all getting out of hand? Especially in the high end sector?
And then you start looking under the carpet, and gosh, the things you find there! Tara Labs is just one of many, many people who did it that way. But they are far from being alone, or even among the few. And it starts to compound - lies, wild mark-ups, all kinds of swindles. And you and I, as the end users, customers, tend to feel VERY bad about it all when we read in the papers about an occasionally caught red handed case. We tend to see ourselves as being taken in, swindled, overcharged, sheesh, ripped off.
Cheers,
DVV
