That is an extortionate price: 5k-ish per speaker for milled / powder coated alloy plate and three pod thingies.! Why don’t they come with the speakers.? Optional extras - so they can make more of a killing.!
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I’d love to compare business model and financial situation of various High End companies to see if the selling point „high price and built quality“ works as well or better than „price/performance ratio“ or „lower quality and mass“ etc.
I got a quote to have them reverse engineered and it was still going to cost as much. Might as well buy the genuine thing.
Anyone who sells you a speaker at the price points that Magico is at, is just F’ing over their clientele.
If the pods make a supposed statement speaker sound it’s best, it should have been included. It’s like selling a car without wheels.
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Or maybe with 4 mini spares instead of real tires.
I think most of their customers are part of the “idle rich” group and the number of zeros next to the dollar sign mean very little in the grand scheme of things.
Around here it is people who spend $millions on Lake Michigan water front houses only to spend millions more to remodel them without moving in yet or try to reinforce the lake bluff to keep the house from falling into the water.
Both are fun to watch from a short distance.
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They are included on their M6 statement speaker. Optional on M2 and M3.
Proving the point that it is extortionate. If you received a quote to manufacture a SINGLE set, based on the deconstruction, analysis, and engineering inputs required to produce an equivalent product for an equal price… Seems a fool’s errand to defend Magico’s pricing model.
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I was quoted $2.5K just to turn the physical piece into a CAD drawing. And then every CNC tool change was $150. Plus the cost of the 1" T6061 plate. Plus the cost of the 6mm copper plate. Plus the vertical milling time. Plus the machining of the threads. Plus the powder coating. etc etc. The total cost of the reverse engineered speaker stands is about what it cost to buy new from Magico. In which case it’s pretty hard to sling any mud at Magico for their pricing.
When you buy stuff you know that from a material and seriesmanufacturing point of view it costs max. 20% of what you pay. Another 20% to the manufacturing companies overhead (R&D, sales and margin) all the rest goes into sales channel, taxes and shipping.
The crocs are in the word series.
You have presented a perfect example about the difference between having one or two parts made on your own (neglecting the pressures time you put into it) and a well running manufacturing process for multiple units.
If that balance is as you describe, you can be certain that you get quality when you buy it.
If I had the budget, I’d probably buy it too. I love solid wood and machined metal. I learned how to even machine metal myself (the German mechanics amongst us may remember having to make the perfect U-Eisen). Together with carving wood it has become a passion, more than common sense perhaps.
In the aviation, safety parts of cars and other transports it is life saving. So why not enjoy it in your hobby.
I think “hobby” is defined by the fact that one individual finds its sanity in it and the other thinks it’s insane.
Anyway! Have a great weekend and enjoy your hobbies and music.
You were getting overly charged on the CAD work. (says a CAD designer)(Me)
I’d do it for $250. It’s not rocket science.
The most important question to ask of the fabricator is how much for the second set. The overhead cost of the first set would not be added to the second set, which should reflect only time and materials for the actual fabrication and assembly.
Magico is a global company. I would have to assume the design overhead has long been recovered, so what they are charging is just for fabrication and assembly. But who knows… maybe there is some alien technology in those bases that cost millions to engineer. 
The thing is, the companies here with the 5-axis milling machines are all flat out with as much work as they can handle. So for an ad-hoc job like mine they can charge whatever they want for the CAD drawing.
I could get it made in China cheaper, but I’d still need the CAD done and checked before outsourcing expensive metal cutting and shipping. And in any event, not worth the hassle. Just pay the money and do it right.
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I don’t have the benefits of economy of scale for cutting 100 units of a $2500 CAD drawing. I’d be left with 99 units that I couldn’t sell.
They can break down the projected cost any way they want to. But there is No-Way those alloy T bar supports should cost their customers anything remotely close to 10k per pair. Simply ripping customers off! Getting close to NASA type pricing – but where safety is paramount. Paying out 70k and above for a pair of loudspeakers then surely both speaker support options should be included. Do you not agree. ?
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No. The M-series speakers would be a financial stretch for many people. Giving customers the option of an upgrade (stands, or whatever) allows customers to get on-board at a cheaper price point, and aim for the upgrade later as funds permit. Withe the M6, as it’s their statement speaker, they take the upgrade option away and only sell the very best product they can build. And in any event, those customers are not likely to be financially challenged so the $10K upgrade option for them is meaningless.
I also think it’s quite usual to charge in that range for individual work in case someone’s not keen on that job. But you can be lucky to find price differences. I recently had something laser cut by an own CAD design and anodized. The one I finally contracted took 20% of what the others offered…so not 20% off, but 20 instead of 100.
That’s just snobbery…!
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I work with high risk, high tech equipment manufacturers for the on- and offshore oil and gas industry for use in hazardous classified areas. Apart from deep subsea and aviation it doesn’t get any more demanding when it comes to very rugged yet painstakingly precise manufactured enclosures. I sometimes ask the designers what those ultra high grade stainless steel or aluminum alloy complex machined parts cost.
They contain capillary holes (30-40 mm long 0.6 mm tiny holes drilled in stainless steel) complex labyrinths functioning as flame arrestors and breathing devices for the extreme ambient conditions the equipment is designed for (-60 to +60 or even +100 deg C).
But nowhere near the amount of cost that Linn is charging it’s customers for the Klimax Radikal Turntable power supply enclosure or Kore sub chassis. Even for prototypes from small volume model manufacturers who make those one offs only.
But Linn and their sales network need to make profit to survive.
The manufacturers I talk about sell directly and the 60%, a sales channel seems to consume from our payments for our hobby does not apply in that industry.
I think Linn is expensive, Majico perhaps even more expensive.
But there are very few, who offer that quality level in the Audio industry without looking overly “bling bling” (thus cheap).
A positive exception is AURALiC.
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I fully understand and accept what you say. And: I couldn’t care less what someone is willing to payout for their hobby – it’s their money! Some are willing to spend hundreds/thousands $$ on fuses!!
My point is, $10,000 is an obscene amount of money for basically two alloy brackets for loudspeakers… But, when it comes to ‘daft’, specialist HiFi would feature high-up the list.
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Really? It is all relative when it comes to one’s available resources, IMO.
I prefer value (bang for the buck) over price, personally. But I would not condemn those that have a much greater amount of disposable income for how they choose to spend theirs. Maybe that was not your intent..?
Put another way, I would never spend, for example, $100,000 for a pair of speakers unless: (A) I could afford them; and (B) I thought they were worth it (to me) in terms of their price to performance ratio.
The same can be said for “upgrades” and accessorizing kit. One man’s prized aftermarket power cord is another man’s foolish waste money; no?
To each his own, I suppose.
Respectfully.