In The Netherlands the Atom (and HE) are currently at a price point that i consider them too expensive for what they are, so i’m not considering them seriously. It’s interesting how that works, i might feel differently if they were a few hundred Euro cheaper.
(price converted is currently around 2.545 GBP for the Atom here)
The Atom is £2,399 here, so very little difference.
Yes i know, i mainly meant it is a psychological thing, it ‘feels’ too expensive for what it is (to me).
Perhaps it’s like the difference between a price of 0,95 and 1,05 – it’s close but it feels different.
This is what I suggested, but Richard denied.
???
HH is essentially correct. I’m not sure I denied that at all.
You were talking about margin. I said this was basically kept consistent. You initially target a price and work towards that. However, If your costs increase unexpectedly for whatever reason then you need to charge more to protect that margin.
Absolutely. One of the first questions asked of any product before it’s given a green light is “how many do we think we will sell?” That has a bearing on everything from parts cost and availability through to R&D and production resource, facility resource, sales resource, to after-sales.
Anyone who has studied a bit of management accounting will understand how it works. There are many elements to be added to the basket of costs. The parts themselves, labour time, machine time, factory overheads, sales, marketing, R&D, margin…. loads of things. Companies will have a good idea of what the market will stand and it’s then a case of jiggling about to ensure the product meets the required standard for the intended price. Say R&D for a product was £100,000: the amount allocated to each product will be a lot more if the expected sales is 100 than if it were 10,000.
They could have done much much better with their mohican 5000$ cheap featured and cheap looking cd player.
Subjective pish.
Add an Attenborough voice-over and a viral marketing video is born …
With respect, the Hegel H390 (2x250@8Ohms) is quite a different amplifier from the H190 (2x150@8Ohms) though. Who would be surprised the H390 sounded better than the Supernait 3? The fact that the Supernait 3 competes with the H190 is impressive enough. If you wanted to make a fair Hegel-to-Naim comparison using the H390, don’t you think you should be moving up the Naim line as well?
There is no reason why the Hegel should sound better than the SN3. It’s not just about power and which is preferred surely comes down to each individual’s judgement.
Specs/Watts not always indicator for good sound, on the contrary…
IMO a Nait (18 watt) sound better than any Hegel amp I’ve heard.
Nelson Pass says: ‘who cares if an amplifier sounds like 500W, if the first watt sounds like… sh*t?!’
Well the high power design of the Hegels apparently does allow for very high damping factors (4000+), which helps with bass control and dynamic performance. So there is something to be said for more power, if it is used in the right way.
Hi litemotiv, can’t say my S1/500DR is lacking in bass control, this from memory with a rated Damping Factor of only 30 for the 500. At lot of definition lies within the pre 
ATB Peter
I haven’t heard either myself Peter (500DR or Hegel), so i can’t tell the difference, but i’m confident that the 500DR sounds pretty great yes, especially with the S1!
The Audionote Ongaku , 120k integrated, is 8w. So power tells nothing.
According to their website it’s rated at 2x 27W @ 1Khz, 5% THD which means it’s extremely noisy…
Neither does price!
The Hegel amps remind me more of Exposure than Naim.
Very similar bluff front. Chassis layout and with its wrap around folded casework.
Exposure went with some novel ways to eliminate crossover AB distortion along with a class A pre stage.
Both seem to get praise for having a more neutral honest delivery with good soundstage and bass grip. Both have some thinking that can lead to a blandness.
I haven’t heard a Hegel amp myself - so only an observation.
And yes, Exposure seems better priced for what they offer.