JJZolx Wrote: > And it was only $200? They may not have been making much, but so much > for those who think wrapping an SB2 in a real case with controls needs > to add $500 to the price tag.
Maybe there's a reason they are no longer available :) If you read the thread carefuly, you'll see that Audiotron is not such a good comparison to what we proposed. Also, I don't recall anyone saying it needed to "add $500" to the price tag. I recall that the new price might be "under $500," and that would allow a decent profit margin to actually stay in business. The slight outward visual resemblance to an Audiotron would be as close as our fanciful SB got to an Audiotron. Recall: -- retain the VF display (or make it even longer) -- retain the high quality SB2 components -- add the front panel with backlit buttons -- add high-quality, weighted, velocity-sensitive volume/selector knob, also backlit -- add high-quality case A colleague of mine (an original SliMP3 owner) and I went through this quickly at work to size the cost (we build networking equipment, not audio equipment). We took the present cost of the wireless SB2, backed out a guessed-at margin, added the new features using small-company prices/volumes, added back in a nice profit margin, and came in around $500. Lower with good volume pricing. And that assumed low-cost assembly. The VF display is quite expensive. It's actually a large chunk of the cost. Also, the new case; custom front panel circuit board and buttons with surround illumination; and the weighted knob probably come close to the entire BOM cost of the current SB2. Granted, it was a 5-minute, "napkin estimate." And let me also say that neither Audiotron nor NAD was considered when we were putting the "ideal SB" together. The resemblance was purely by chance. (check out the beginning of the thread to see what it looked like then.) It could look even better with some proper industrial engineering. -- Dave D _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
