In defense of sticker shock

There are faster ways to start an online fight, but not many. Say “$10,000 DAC” and watch audio-forum commenters descend like pigeons on a dropped hot dog, flapping and furious. They’ll tell you the designers are crooks, the buyers are dupes, and anyone not DIY-ing with AliExpress kits is a poseur.

- BY ROGIER VAN BAKEL

Building high-end hi-fi equipment costs serious coin, but you wouldn’t know it from the Anger, Smugness, and Rigidity found on certain objectivist audio forums, where anything north of, say, $5000 is deemed a ripoff or a status buy. To posters in those snark-infested waters, expensive equals unfair.

Margins and migraines

Here’s the reality. Let’s say you want to build loudspeakers. That means renting, buying, or erecting a building, investing in precision tooling, buying high-quality electronic parts and cabinet materials, and making various prototypes. You’ll need CNC machines and measuring setups. You’ll also need people: engineers, designers, craftspeople, and eventually, operations managers and logistics staff. You’ll be on the hook for salaries and benefits, electricity, insurance, travel expenses, accounting fees, corporate taxes, custom packaging, and whatever the shipping company decides to charge this month. You’ll endure supply-chain droughts the way sailors wait for wind.

Once you’re in production, you’ll file forms, fight tariffs, and pray the resistors you ordered for the next product batch don’t arrive four months late in unmarked baggies, poorly sorted and with a sticky note that says “Sorry.” You’ll have to whisper sweet nothings to customs agents, some of whom might appreciate a little baksheesh. After shipping your products to distributors and dealers, you’ll chase invoices through multiple time zones, probably after sending several emails beginning with “Gentle reminder.”