why are power amps so expensive???!!!

[Bradock PI]

They aint is the answer all these are for home audio:-

Naim NAP 500 power amp £14395
Mark Levinson No.33H monoblock power amplifier $33000 /pair
Krell Evolution 900 Monaural Power Amplifiers $40000 /pair
The Chord SPM 14000 Ultimate Mono power amplifier £26000 /pair
Quad II Eighty mono valve power amplifier (valve) £12000 /pair

Several things influence price (some points always apply)  in the case of amplifiers :-

How good do they sound (they may not cost much to make but if they sound better than anything up to £10k then they will probably cost £9k+ and be placed in a very nice box)
How well are they made (purchaser judgement based usually on tactile impressions and feedback from users (peers or research))
How much do they cost to make (what are the component and labour cost may change depending on where or how many)
How many are we making (economies of scale and return on design costs)
How much did they cost to design (research costs etc failed prototypes)
How much can we get away with charging ( usually designer related - names)

[hunter]

I'm just lucky that Egnater don't make power amps (yet)

Dude, may I quote Robert P. : "Your time is gonna come" :O)

But you know it, you've seen the thread on rig-talk ...

[tomjackson]

They aint is the answer all these are for home audio:-

Naim NAP 500 power amp £14395
Mark Levinson No.33H monoblock power amplifier $33000 /pair
Krell Evolution 900 Monaural Power Amplifiers $40000 /pair
The Chord SPM 14000 Ultimate Mono power amplifier £26000 /pair
Quad II Eighty mono valve power amplifier (valve) £12000 /pair

Several things influence price (some points always apply)  in the case of amplifiers :-

How good do they sound (they may not cost much to make but if they sound better than anything up to £10k then they will probably cost £9k+ and be placed in a very nice box)
How well are they made (purchaser judgement based usually on tactile impressions and feedback from users (peers or research))
How much do they cost to make (what are the component and labour cost may change depending on where or how many)
How many are we making (economies of scale and return on design costs)
How much did they cost to design (research costs etc failed prototypes)
How much can we get away with charging ( usually designer related - names)

No point listening to MP3's on that set up!

Are most Hi-fi enthusiasts still into Vinyl Bradock?

[FELINEGUITARS]

I'm just lucky that Egnater don't make power amps (yet)

Dude, may I quote Robert P. : "Your time is gonna come" :O)

But you know it, you've seen the thread on rig-talk ...

So true , so true :( :D
But I have to confess I am somewhat hooked on the 10w solution for home use
MY MJW power amp is great fun and I am so looking forward to my 10w Single Ended Uber-Marshall that Heavier Than Hell is adapting for me.

It is just great having an amp that I can use at home - still damn loud but I can actually get the level knob off 1 and actually get the best of the tubes

[Bradock PI]

Yes FG mostly but even the top end amp companies are producing several £k amps with MP3 interfaces urghhh. There are some very expensive digital music distribution systems and these attempt to put back what MP3 takes away but Vinyl is still the win a the top. It is a pity that as high end digital audio 192kHz 24bit people wanted to carry them round on low capacity digital storage so the music companies have never pushed them.

[HTH AMPS]

the cost of transformers is certainly a big factor - I paid something like £120.00 for the transformers used in Jonathon's amp before VAT and postage.  There were cheaper options, but you get what you pay for and this has been reflected in the amp's tone.  There were also more expensive options such as Mercury Magnetics, but with the £/$ situation it was felt that double the cost did not equal double the tone.

hi-fi amps are just crazy; all the associated components are priced daft too - ever looked at Audio Note paper-in-oil capacitors?  I know this is an extreme example, but they sell 3.3uF, 500v silver foil caps for £1320.00 (no, thats not a typo).  oh, and you have to pay VAT and postage on top of that.

http://www.audionote.co.uk/comp/cap_paper.shtml

[MDV]

1320 quid for a $%&#ing CAPACITOR?

Thats ridiculous. I dont care if its made from angel feathers and unicorn blood. Thats too damned much.

[Adam.M]

Well someone's gotta bleed the cash out of the millionaires... haha!


Looking at the price sheet i can see that the most common ones that I have seen in guitar amps are 70 quid a pop... jeeze...

Anyone ever used these in amps to you knowledge?

[hunter]

the cost of transformers is certainly a big factor - I paid something like £120.00 for the transformers used in Jonathon's amp before VAT and postage.

What?

You didn't wind them with your bare knuckles?

I am deeply disappointed!

*lol*

But on a serious note, you pay as consumer 250$ for just a Marshall output transsexual (Mercury). So if you assume that the VHT transes are just half the cost, it would probably still be 100$ for the manufacturer, one of those, plus two OTs, plus tubes and high quality caps etc, plus the housing, plus margin, plus retail margin, plus VAT, Customs, Shipping ... man I can't complain for having received mine new for 699 I guess? Plus it sounds fricking great!
 
By the way, the VHT doesn't sag very much, at least not at the levels where I can operate it, which is perfect for the Axe FX, as I prefer to use the facilities in the modeler for these parameters. Means I can have a cranked, saggy Plexi or a super tight Ueberschall with the same rig, and it comes across with punch and transparency.
The Shiva power section might be of better quality (and it does have "something" that the VHT doesn't), but it's not That good a match for the Axe... now I am moving too much off thread here, sorry...

[HTH AMPS]

the cost of transformers is certainly a big factor - I paid something like £120.00 for the transformers used in Jonathon's amp before VAT and postage.

What?

You didn't wind them with your bare knuckles?

I am deeply disappointed!

*lol*

ha ha, yeah - I have pixies in the black forest wind them from silk-moth hair and use metal forged in mount-doom  :lol:

When you use a manufacturer such as Hammond for transformers they have such a vast heritage of winding transformers that things are repeatable and the tolerances very good.  This means that I can predict what the finished amp is gonna sound like to a large extent and minimise the amount of time spent tweaking.  I'm a perfectionist though and tweaking generally takes as long as the rest of the amp took to build.