Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (
More info?)
Pooh Bear wrote:
> Mike Rivers wrote:
>
> > Fletch wrote:
> >
> > > My question is, if the Radial is only a hundred bucks, and the transformer is
> > > $73, what's your time worth?
> >
> > Well, give him a little credit. The Radial JDI is $175 from Mercenary
> > Audio.
> >
> > It's a good example of how a product's price is developed, though. Put
> > a $75 transformer and $10 worth of jacks, switches, and resistors in a
> > $10 box, add $30 for labor, and by the time you mark it up 50% (not
> > unreasonable considering the cost of advertising, the distribution
> > chain, and relatively small quantity sales) and there you go. They
> > probably don't get a big price break on the parts in the quantities
> > they build these things, but they can get the box a lot cheaper than
> > you can, and it's a lot prettier than what you could make yourself.
> >
> > Give up the profit, pay yourself nothing, and be satisfied with a die
> > cast aluminum box and, yeah, you can save $75 over the cost of the
> > Radial.
>
> On the subject of how pricing works out, you'll typically find that the higher
> quantity selling pro-audio gear retails for about 3 times the cost of the parts
> inside it. The manufacturers pay a lot less for the bits inside than you will
> though, so it works out as a fair deal. For example the dual op-amps used in the
> gear I design cost us I think 15 cents each. Small transistors are ~2 cents. SMD
> resistors as little as 1/10 of a cent.
>
> More specialist stuff has a much higher ratio.
>
>
> Graham
Point taken, Mike, regarding my time, but I think we're not talking
about more than half an hour to swap a transformer. And as another
poster mentioned, the Radial does cost about $175. Since my first post
I have found other cheap passive DI's with boxes and jacks of
equivalent quality to the Whirlwind for $20. So we're looking at a no
frills Jensen DI for $93 plus a half hour labor vs. the Radial at $175.
Seems like a worthwhile untertaking to me.
Scotts point about the tranny fitting in the case is a good one. Does
anyone know what exactly the difference is between the 2 Jensen DI
trannys they list on their website? They are the same price and have
identical specs. Anyone know if one of these will fit into a 2" x 2" x
1" space?
Thanks,
Dan