Why are so many people trying to sell Harbeths?

Roxy, I hardly feel it is appropriate to state my proposal as being silly. So, in your vaulted opinion, where does the glass ceiling end. You mentioned an older review of the Model 40 in ETM listing the speakers 7K which jumped to approx. $13,000 to $14,000. Geez, how did that occur, did Harbeth workers get an unexpected and large per hour raise. Elevated and run away costs of new materials; engineering design changes priced out in terms of hours of research and development, and special personnel.....or was it just old fashion " what the market will bear" or to say it another way, we need to dramatically increase profit margins by say 50-60% instead of a reasonable increase of 25%-30%

I don't know what Mr. Harbeth and his Board of Directors were thinking and neither do you. All we know is that the buyer will be required to pay for the item if he/she wants it.

Begator, No we need not get into a debate; I never liked any of the political, social, and this case, economic theories that came out of the Chicago School However, you can go back to Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian theory of value which was one of the sources the Chicago School used. Even Karl Marx in his interesting if not classic essay "Alienated Labor" used a type of romanticized utilitarian theory to argue for the "value" a workman gives (and imbues) to the product he assembles by his labor and craftmanship

Sorry, I read these guy and more when studying for my Ph.d exams in History. Lastly, we are not considering the relative cost of combs, light bulbs, pliers or widgets, but electronically sophisticated products.

No one in his right mind wants to pay retail for audio products, because if that was generally true, many of us would not daily monitor the lists of used products on Audiogon. Cheers.

Sunnyjim,
I apologize if I caused offense; I didn't mean to. The way I read your comments though seems tilted far to the economic side of the subject, even citing certain schools of thought which I readily admit I have never even heard of.
I think it is easy to get lost there. The point is that this is all about individual perception of value based on the enjoyment the user receives from their purchase.
I thought that your use of the term "rip-off" was over the top because, after all, none of these companies are forcing us to buy their products.
In the end, we all speak with our wallets, and the reasons for price increases (which are usually profit based) are not really that important to the argument. If the item is priced too high relative to (dirty words) "perceived value", it won't sell.
It's just about having fun.

If the price of Harbeth bothers you,then you should take a look at Joseph Audio,ATC,Wilson,Magico,etc. Do you have a problem with those guys? Even KEF makes $20,000 speakers and they're made in China!

Sunnyjim, nobody is debating paying retail - I'm quite certain that's a debate you'll rarely encounter here. I like paying closer to wholesale, I'm sure most people do. We all like discounts, we all like finding bargains.

At issue here is what seems to your belief that manufacturers should only be entitled to some pre-determined profit margin, directly tied to proportional increases in input costs - as you alluded to with your "reasonable increase of 25-30%" comment, and wanting to know manufacturer costs before making a purchase (which ironically is sort of Marxian, don't you think?).

Where we do agree is in your pointing out that we are talking about electronically sophisticated products, not disposable items like combs and light bulbs. Manufacturers must maintain excess component inventory so that they can service these products after the sale, so that when a moving company drops your speakers you can get immediate replacements. The larger the customer base, the larger the required service inventory. I'm not suggesting that this is the reason for higher margins, only that there are many factors that may account for any company's price structure increasing.

But like everyone says, we all vote with our wallets. That's the beauty of a free market economy, when we actually allow it to work (which is as rare as unicorns these days).

Yogi boy, compared to Wilson or Magico, Harbeth seems like a bargain.