Paul McGowan writes:
Reviewer Eric Neff wrote a bold comment in his recent review of the BHK 250 in HiFi Plus Magazine.
As audiophiles, we sometimes fall into the ‘price equals performance’ trap. We fear being the emperor with no clothes when our friends ask how much we paid and it was, gasp! LESS than what flagship gear is supposed to cost. Naturally it must not be that good.
The same phenomena occur if the chassis isn’t heavy enough—or festooned with enough audio jewelry. it can’t be good.
These preconceptions of price, heft, and glitz, are so ingrained that they are nearly impossible to overcome.
Some manufacturers recognizing this paradigm jack up the price to what customers perceive as “worth it” and then add sufficient bling to the chassis to justify the price. The innards and performance remain the same.
As a company, we’ve never been able to do that, perhaps to our detriment. That kind of behavior simply goes against our value system.
Is it possible to change this dynamic of how we evaluate product?
Are we, as an industry, so entrenched it might be easier to whistle Dixie?