Why are turntable cartridges so expensive?

Have you seen the cost af the Audio Technica AT95 ?

A friend of mine purchased an old Shure V15III with knackered stylus, a Jico replacement was around £20-25 and result is a great sound

That said I think the Ortofon Anna is way overpriced

I see at my retailer cartridges range from a few hundred to many thousand, I don't know if the stylus comes with that or indeed what they themselves are worth. They must be quite technical and perhaps made of exotic stuff perhaps?

Limited market, high development costs, precision micro engineering, extraordinarily difficult assembly leading to frequent re-work after test...

The cost of the raw materials including the rare earth elements and the diamond itself is completely insignificant.

WTP, like anything else.

As Huge says limited Market and watchmaker like assembly its not going to be cheap making the best.

You do get something which has real soul about it.

Just like a vintage wine its not going to be cheap

Surprisingly there's a world of options out there to be had in a seemingly less than world market of buyers. Frankly, I wonder how all these cartridge makers and their variations persist. Just glad they do.

I don't think they necessarily are.   The Goldrings and ATs are very good value in my opinion.   

Ditto, Huge.

Developing and building a small number of highly Engineered things almost always results in a more expensive product than developing for a high number of highly Engineered things.  It's because the cost of the development and manufacturing can be spread over a large number of units sold. Cost alone is no guarantee of quality.

Sometimes a mass produced thing will be better than a more expensive low volume thing.

It's why Ford can sell you a Fiesta at £15k but Bentley wants £200k plus.  You may think that the Bentley 'quality' would justify the cost but I can assure you, in pure Engineering terms, the Fiesta is the better product.

Mattnbarns posted:

Ditto, Huge.

Developing and building a small number of highly Engineered things almost always results in a more expensive product than developing for a high number of highly Engineered things.  It's because the cost of the development and manufacturing can be spread over a large number of units sold. Cost alone is no guarantee of quality.

Sometimes a mass produced thing will be better than a more expensive low volume thing.

It's why Ford can sell you a Fiesta at £15k but Bentley wants £200k plus.  You may think that the Bentley 'quality' would justify the cost but I can assure you, in pure Engineering terms, the Fiesta is the better product.

This is so true in the consumer space, and seemingly often mis understood by the layperson.. expensive, low volume in technology often buys you bespoke, customisation and individuality but not necessarily the best engineering or technology.

Volume and mass production pricing  gives uniformity and standardisation, but more often that not provides new technology that  has developed to allow better product engineering.

Simon

The simple answer is, as always, 'how much can you get away with?' It's the basic and only business goal. Don't believe any company's pr blurb about development costs, the cost of raw materials, etc... nonsense.

BTW, the Linn LP12 belt has just gone up from £18 to £50, because they can. Before that, it was £15 for years. Yeah, the price of raw rubber must have shot up recently.

Maybe.  It is true that companies need to make a profit, but blatant profiteering is often counter productive - no body likes to be conned.

Taking your belt example.  It depends how it is made.  The development costs will have been long since amortised but if it requires a precision tool (by this I mean mould) which needs replacing from time to time then this cost must be split amongst the remaining sales.  If the sales are low (and I suspect they are) then the cost has to up. 

Also bear in mind the £50 is not the cost of manufacture. You need to factor in, shipping, storage, retail etc. Each step needs to make a profit to remain in business.  I bet that your £50 belt needs to cost less than £20-£25 to make to satisfy everybody in the chain.

That said, in my experience, the HiFi world is one where outrageous prices are charged and outrageous claims made so frequently it's frightening. Entreq ground boxes anyone?

Even when LPs were the primary source of home music, ie before CD or streaming etc, mc cartridges were bloody expensive, so its not just a niche market that pushes up the price.

I set boundaries with regard to my system to keep the cost realistic for my means. One of those was to stay within the realm of MM. Costs of high end MCs and their phono stages can escalate quickly. Bleeding the nth degree out of vinyl is not worth it for me. MM carts and stages seem to have a ceiling of about $1K each, many decent ones half that or even less. Keeps things practical for the common man.

joerand posted:

I set boundaries with regard to my system to keep the cost realistic for my means. One of those was to stay within the realm of MM. Costs of high end MCs and their phono stages can escalate quickly. Bleeding the nth degree out of vinyl is not worth it for me. MM carts and stages seem to have a ceiling of about $1K each, many decent ones half that or even less. Keeps things practical for the common man.

That statement on the Naim forum = oxymoron