Hifiearspeakers
Headphoneus Supremus
So? A company spends a finite amount of money on R&D when developing a product. They have to price the product so that even with mediocre sales, they get that investment back. After that, the markup over the raw production costs are pure profit.
The HD800 was released around September of 2009, it seems. It retails for $1,399.95. Its R&D costs have hopefully been recouped by now.
The HD800S was released in January of 2016. It retails for $1,699.95. I doubt it costs anywhere close to $300 more to make than the HD800, and I doubt the additional R&D costs were that substantial. It's more likely that they have been working on the HD820 for a while, and in the process figured out a way to make the HD800 sound better, too. They charged more because it's better than a product that sold for less, so why not.
So now, in the summer of 2018, the HD820 comes out. It retails for $2,399.95, $1,000 more than the HD800. New R&D costs to recover, and likely higher production costs over the HD800, maybe on the order of $50-$100.
They could have kept the price low, using the existing markup over production costs to recoup the additional investment. Unless they massively miscalculated on the HD800... but it was hugely successful, so I highly doubt that.
They are charging more because they think they have a killer product: world class sound in a closed format, making it useful in many more environments. That is a value increase over the HD800/S. And they want to cash in on that. As most businesses would.
Don't delude yourself in thinking that Sennheiser would go broke if they only charged $200 more than they do for the HD800S. People will buy this one who haven't even considered the open versions. They charge more because given $4,000 LCD-4s and Utopias, and $6,000 Susvaras, they can.
At least that's my assumption. I have no more insight into this than any of you do, to be fair.
Of course it's not quite that simple, but it's not always far off. If you have an Ether, you can upgrade it to an Ether Flow or Ether C Flow. The open Ether Flow has bass ports like the closed one, they just don't serve any purpose. They share a lot of components, and the differences are mostly in the cap, bass port, and some tuning. Not surprisingly, both versions sell for the same price.
The LCD-XC retails for $100 more than the LCD-X, probably because the added cup is made from actual wood, which is always costly.
Thanks for that. As far as I am concerned, the HD660S sounds a lot more like what I expected based on the HD650's reputation. Better in every way. I am glad I resisted the temptation to buy the HD6XX. But I've never had one for several hours or even days, maybe I would fall in love with it eventually after discovering some hidden qualities that make it worth losing so much detail.
Says who? You have no idea what their R&D and overhead costs are. You don’t work for them and you’re not an auditor. All this cost speculation being pawned off as fact is getting ridiculous. If you don’t want them, don’t buy them. If you think they’re too pricey, don’t buy them. But people need to stop acting like they have the first clue about their budget and expenses.
Last edited: