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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Was Keynes wrong?


... audio-sake, maybe:-)

Supply and demand?

Market laws seems to do not properly apply to audio... many audio gears, amps, turntables, cartridges and speakers cost more than solid gold... is it workmanship the ONE and ONLY added value explaining such an apparently inflated price-tags, sometimes reaching real estate price tags?

Is it mass production vs. handmade? Maybe... BUT building quality isn't - per se - only coming from this or that... so that's not self-explaining nothing.

I remember years ago, I don't know if referring to S. Schmidlin's Audio Consulting or Imai-san's Audio Tekne or to both:-)... i.e. when you buy "xxxxx" from us you buy our vision and dream...

The above should/would justify the AWFULLY high, almost alien price-tags of some gears, who knows... I visited Imai-san's 1 & 1/2 square meters, tiny sized "workshop"... father and son seated at a bench, hand soldering for hours and hours on every top of the line amps or preamps they put on the market worldwide...

Is this one-to-one, maker-to-customer approach, alone, worth tycoon-only final prices?

How's worth Man's time, one hour of unconditionally given, full of attention and dedication, depending on his/her skill and/or profession?

A doctor while surgering would be worth millions, as human life is so precious... BUT also an audio engineer and builder, giving shivers and food to our soul, giving life to a black plastic slab with grooves and giving us - i.e. Bach or S.L. Weiss... isn't this worth "some" money... BIG money, I mean?

... and why people I know and/or I'm aware of, after spending BIG bucks on this or that piece of gears, when it comes the time to go multiamping, so needing a... crossover:-))) - yes, it's recent stuff, folks... - they suddently get into a sad penny-pinchers mood and go for a crappy built, sounding and conceived IC-based crossover, completely fucking ALL the system sound and nuances?

Money rules, would say Keynes, BUT in audio and music, yes, also fine instruments are elusive matter and some of the a.m. anti-Keynes' laws apply, as well...

It's time and its value, skills and knowledge value, it's idea, details, materials, of course... but the mix of the above mentioned give best audio stuffs, NOT only resistors and caps and transformers in a box, BUT something which gives Music... and Music is above ANY value and as much money unrelated as it can be, so priceless.

AT ANY PRICE, music and everything gives it to us, is as precious as life.

Priceless.

Unique.

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