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Actually, it looks like they are making nice wood cabinets for cheap low-quality parts: - a "full range" 3" speaker is about $7, quantity 1. - a 20W at 10% TH
by dsr_ 10y ago
Actually, it looks like they are making nice wood cabinets for cheap low-quality parts:
- a "full range" 3" speaker is about $7, quantity 1.
- a 20W at 10% THD class D amplifier with bluetooth input is $25, retail. (Yes, that's a terrible spec. It's what Princeton claims.)
- a battery is $8
- a few dollars for a fancy knob and grille.
So they are charging about $300 for their cabinets and
integration of all the above. Nice work if you can sell it.
- ctvo 10y agoCan you do a breakdown for a MacBook Pro for me. I paid over 3k for the latest one. I'd love to know how much all the parts cost sans casing and integration.
- throwaway6556 10y agoI like your brand of sarcasm.
- dsr_ 10y agoThis speaker system has specs which make it the equivalent of putting a Raspberry Pi in a MacBook aluminum chassis.
- cthalupa 10y agoAs an audio enthusiast who spends far too much money on speakers and other gear: This isn't the same. The actual transducers and gear in these things is very low-end. Their gimmick seems to be the "tonewoods", which when you take into account the level of electronics in these is just silly. It's nearly cable riser levels of snake oil. Couple that with the fact that this is streamed over bluetooth (They mention using aptX, but not what variant, and even the aptx 'lossless' variant is still lossy in many circumstances... and iPhones and many android phones don't support aptX at all) where you are using lossy compression over what is already likely a lossy compressed file, and your audio quality is going to be pretty terrible, all things considered. You better be buying these things for the looks, because they're certainly not worth the price for the level of performance. You might claim you're paying a premium on an MBP for looks and such, but there's genuinely good hardware inside a MBP. This is a $30 wireless speaker with $270+ being spent on a gimmick.
- icc97 10y agoYou can connect via WiFi too [0] [0]: https://youtu.be/zR-LJpLn3SU?t=40s https://youtu.be/zR-LJpLn3SU?t=40s
- cthalupa 10y agoAh, good catch, and I stand corrected. Doesn't resolve the amp and transducer themselves being mediocre, however :(
- abandonliberty 10y agoHey at least they're not Monster :D Just wondering, how much more would they have to spend to provide electronics worthy of their designs and money spent on wood and skilled US labor? I'm guessing it's currently <20% of their costs. Of course, in the audio industry style trumps substance almost every time. Why bother if most of your consumers can't tell the difference? Let's be honest here. These are mostly going to play bluetooth-transmitted audio from a modern low-fi turntable. I suspect they're pretty good at that. And they look nice.
- phonon 10y agoWell, the amp is fine as long as it's kept under 10 W. (Fig. 9, < .1% THD + N) http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3001d1.pdf http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3001d1.pdf OTOH, it's a $1.80 part...and retail, in a board, under $7 :-) http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-8V-20V-Mini-TPA3001D1-20W-Mono-Class-D-Audio-Power-Amplifier-AMP-Board-/201439878578 http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-8V-20V-Mini-TPA3001D1-20W-Mono-Cl...
- illumin8 10y agoThis is hilariously bad. An "audiophile" speaker manufacturer lovingly handcrafts genuine wooden cabinets, then proceeds to fill them with the cheapest possible components acquired from AliExpress... With those kind of margins, they can probably afford to flood Amazon FCs with thousands of these things and still make a profit, despite carrying excess inventory.
- jjeaff 10y agoBut it's "tonewood" you can't just ignore the fact that they use "tonewood"!!!