Low cost, high value

One of the downsides to making lower cost, high-value equipment is fewer people take notice—in particular, the press and their readers. And, who can blame them? If I were in the audio press I'd surely want to cover the latest pinnacle of design than uncovering a lower cost hidden gem. I imagine it must be the same in other industries as well—review the latest 0-60 in under 2-second Tesla automobile, or a 0-60 in under 11-second Toyota Prius? As a reader, I'd certainly rather read about the fastest than the average. Real life usage of products is often very different than some of the sensationalist measurement data used to promote it. I can remember years ago when the Halcro brand of power amplifiers sported such vanishingly low distortion measurements that the audio world was buzzing with excitement—yet in practicality, we don't hear differences between 0.01% THD and 0.00001% THD just as we don't need to get to the supermarket it under 2 seconds. When we first launched our lower cost, high-value Stellar line of audio products we understood this problem—that no matter how incredible they sounded it's difficult to get people excited until they actually own them. Growth and acceptance would be slow and steady. Groundbreakers make the news, but the down to earth gems enjoy lasting power.