Quote:
Originally Posted by White Out 403
i have to ask, what makes these so incredibly expensive? 37k new?
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This seems like a fun exercise to do while I procrastinate at work
While a good part of that price is purely driven by limited economy of scale, as well as paying for B&O's relatively large marketing budget, there are a few things to note as I assess this cross-section:
Right off the bat, we can can see this is is a four-way loudspeaker, and I imagine it uses premium drivers. I assume those premium drivers were built by an OEM for B&O back then, but for the purposes of this exercise I will be picking drivers myself based on the properties I value, that are available now.
Now a four way actively amplified loudspeaker also requires an individual amplifier for each driver. This particular speaker has a downfiring fifteen inch speaker powered by a 1000W amplfiier. B&O manufactures their own amplifiers, specifically the icepower line, so this is probably the exact part give or take a decade of lineup tweaks (and keep in mind, when this speaker first came out, icepower was far more expensive as high-end class D audio amplfiers simpliy didn't exist on the market back in 2007):
https://shop.icepoweraudio.com/product/1000asp/
$307 US
Now for a full-range speaker, the subwoofer component, at least in my opinion, should have a high-end motor with multiple faraday rings, as well as a spider and surround that can handle the downfiring configuration, while having low inductance to mate up smoothly to the woofer. If I were picking a premium driver to play that role, I would probably go with this one, and I would get the apollo upgrade:
https://aespeakers.com/shop/td/td15s/
that's $600 US
Now let's move on up to the woofer. It's also got a 1000W icepower amp, so add another $307 for the amplification. Eyeballing it from the picture above, it looks like it's an 8" woofer. Now how much would a premium 8" woofer cost? Well, I already know which one I would use, so let's cost it out:
https://www.solen.ca/en/products/pur...ne-woofer-8ohm
that's $745 US give or take. And probably worth every cent, and honesly probably better than what B&O actually used given these Purifi drivers weren' around back then, but I digress
Now we ge to the midrange. It's an upfiring dome unit, probably two-three inches in diameter. I know exactly what I would have used back then, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's exactly what B&O used, either. I think it's NLA on the DIY market, but it was the ATC SM75-150 and I'm sure it's still used by a ton of high-end speakers. It's the ideal driver for an omnidirectional speaker design, and it's a beast. Here's a review of it:
https://app.box.com/s/j1pwj8exbmioz350nu0n
Now on the used market, these things are going for about $900 each, but I'll be super-conservative and cost it out to $550 USD ea.
And the midrange has its own 250W amp:
https://shop.icepoweraudio.com/product/250a/
$63 US
Next we get to the tweeter. For an omni speaker smaller is better so I went with this one:
https://www.css-audio.com/online-sto...ter-p173345348
$83 US and don't forget a 250W tweeter amp at $63 US
Next thing to consider is a custom DSP used for the crossover, as well as preamplification, and input management. While there are some made-in-china brands at a third of he cost, this is the kind of premium electronic I would expect in a premium speaker:
https://musicgear4.me/catalog/WT-00110282/
$1600 USD now maybe the B&O unit is a little cheaper for them to manufacture, but they do have to pay the salaries of their electronics engineers.
Next we get to the enclosure. I'm not a professional so I can only wildly guess the manufacturing cost, but it appears to be aircraft grade aluminum in an extremely custom form factor. I wouldn't be surprised if one speaker's enclosure costs about $4000usd to manufacture. Maybe more, maybe less, but it's certainly outside of the capabilities of a DIYer. Let's factor in the other details - insultation, wire, and shipping to the reseller to that cost. My gut tells me that's a little conservative, but it's just a guess.
so all of the above adds up to $6718 US. Let's assume assembly and QA drive that up to $7000
multiply by two for a stereo pair
14000 US = $19000 cad
Next, give that pair away for free so Kanye West at the peak of his career puts it into his music video
Now factor in all the other overhead that goes into running a business.
Do I think it was a fairly priced speaker? No idea, never ran a business in my life. But as a DIY speaker builder, I could definitely lose a ton of money trying to re-create it with what I feel are the best parts. I would actually use different amplifiers though.
FS: Bang & Olufsen Beolab 5 speakers
