[ricmon]

What a deal!!!  It's been marked down from $900.00.    And let's not forget it's a Stereophile Recommended Component!
I can't imagine a metal ring worth 900 bucks.

Clearaudio Outer Limit LP Stabilizer
Clearaudio Outer Limit LP Stabilizer $699.99
The revolutionary Outer Limit clamp. It is carefully placed on the top edge of a record to insure the outermost section of your vinyl record remains flat on the turntable's platter. The Outer Limit is machined from a solid block of stainless steel. Can be used with a standard spindle record clamp.

Special Sale Price of only $699.99! Regularly $900.00! Only 1 available at this price! Stereophile Recommended Component!

http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=CLEAOLIMIT&utm_source=email&utm_medium=special

[TheChairGuy]

The VPI's versions go for similar money: http://vpiindustries.com/ssm.htm  It's pictured on the SuperScoutMaster

Audio, hi end at least, is a small industry requiring specialized tooling and cost that must be re-couped at high selling prices as there is little volume.  If there was an exact-fitting stabilizer used in the auto industry, it might sell for $10.00...but because there are so few needing it for hi-end audio on hi-end turntables, it costs a ton.

Simple, nasty economics at work - it can be applied to anything you or I have bought that's audiophool approved....from exotic amps to cables to equipment stands, etc.

I'm not condoning the practice, or necessarily criticizing it.....it just is what it is 

[Joules]

Every body knows steels are not good sounding materials.
I can sell you one made of Brass, a much more audiogenic material.
With proprietary rotational stabilization. guarantied to reduce rotational instabilities
This week only $400
Thank you very much 

[Wayner]

The rings cost a lot because these people can't figure out how to roll a profile into a circle and bond the seam (weld). It could be made from an aluminum extrusion, rolled and welded at the seam for about $100. I do wonder about the warped record that has an off center warp that lifts on side and sucks under the other. I just don't really see the need for this ring.

W

[95bcwh]

With $900, you could probably take a vacation to china, ask a local steel/cast iron manufacturer to make you one for $2

[TheChairGuy]

With $900, you could probably take a vacation to china, ask a local steel/cast iron manufacturer to make you one for $2

Err, it might well be if you ordered 10,000 of 'em.  But if you ask them for one, or 10 or 100, they'll either refuse or charge you substantially more.  Maybe not $900, or even half, but a lot more. The Chinese luv volume...they'd rather make $1 on a million items than $100 on 1000 of 'em I've found.  10.5 years of doing business there has taught me many lessons.

Therein lies the problem - hi-end audio is too diffused and too small even at it's aggregate size.  Clearaudio and VPI combined probably don't sell 200 (total between 'em)  outer ring clamps a year to folks.  They paid a lot for original tooling, they pay a lot for small quantity made in US or Germany and, even then, they probably sit on inventory until those 100-200 customers per year order them. A BIG audio specialist company may be doing $2 million per year, max - it's just small fry stuff. 

So, we're near always at the financial mercy of a cruel economic model tilted against us 

[95bcwh]

Well, two dollars is nothing, but it means a lot to the chinese living in small town, the trick is to hook up with a local and let him do the purchase, when a local chinese sees that you're a foreigner, they will do their best to rip you off aa

With $900, you could probably take a vacation to china, ask a local steel/cast iron manufacturer to make you one for $2

Err, it might well be if you ordered 10,000 of 'em.  But if you ask them for one, or 10 or 100, they'll either refuse or charge you substantially more.  Maybe not $900, or even half, but a lot more. The Chinese luv volume...they'd rather make $1 on a million items than $100 on 1000 of 'em I've found.  10.5 years of doing business there has taught me many lessons.

Therein lies the problem - hi-end audio is too diffused and too small even at it's aggregate size.  Clearaudio and VPI combined probably don't sell 200 (total between 'em)  outer ring clamps a year to folks.  They paid a lot for original tooling, they pay a lot for small quantity made in US or Germany and, even then, they probably sit on inventory until those 100-200 customers per year order them. A BIG audio specialist company may be doing $2 million per year, max - it's just small fry stuff. 

So, we're near always at the financial mercy of a cruel economic model tilted against us 

[TheChairGuy]

Nope, not so.

I speak about 7 words of Mandarin (4 of them curses), but I come prepared with the universal language - the currency of green.

The Chinese are amazingly democratic that way - dollars talk, irregardless of the skin or nationality of the person doling it out.

10,000+ pieces matter - 10 pieces don't.

Why is this in Vintage Circle, anyhow? 

[nathanm]

Why is this in Vintage Circle, anyhow? 

The metal in the product is very old.

I bet one could get their local high school shop class to make these things, fob a few off to gullible audiophile$ and bingo, the kids' college tuition is paid for!

[Merle]

My job involves contracting with very high precision machine shops to manufacture parts used in the Aerospace industry. I could have that ring made [1 mind you] for around 100 bucks, give or take 50. If I wanted 1000 of them, well, they wouldn't cost much at all. Not much "tooling" involved in a simple diameter. Not much machining skill either, really. A CNC could drop them off in about 5 minutes time each.

[ricmon]

Why is this in Vintage Circle, anyhow? 

your right chairguy.  I meent to post it on the vinyl ring.   sorry 

[nathanm]

My job involves contracting with very high precision machine shops to manufacture parts used in the Aerospace industry. I could have that ring made [1 mind you] for around 100 bucks, give or take 50. If I wanted 1000 of them, well, they wouldn't cost much at all. Not much "tooling" involved in a simple diameter. Not much machining skill either, really. A CNC could drop them off in about 5 minutes time each.

*tsk tsk tsk* Merele, that type of plain, matter-of-fact language will get you nowhere in the audiophile marketing world!  I'm sure what you meant to say is that these precision devices require hours of careful craftsmanship based upon years of intense research and careful listening tests, using only the purest materials.  Geez, you make it sound like it's a round piece of beveled metal or something!   

[TheChairGuy]

Topic moved to Audio Central. Thank you.

John / TCG (Moderator)