Considering all of these amps are handmade, it makes sense that generally the cost of the amp will go up. Small businesses can only order so much in advance to really take advantage of economies of scale so unless the company gets larger, pricing can increase over time. Don’t forget about the 25% tariff that’s being slapped onto everything that comes out of China at the moment.
The things that will go down in price will be items that involve a mold cost that makes each unit made cheaper and cheaper. If none of the components benefit from that, the best you can really hope for is either pricing stays the same, pricing stays the same and you get better components, or pricing increases with better components. From my experience though, small businesses normally have a little more passion for what they’re doing so they will try to keep pricing stable or try to include better stuff when they do raise their prices.
A good reason for rising cost is inflation due to dollar depreciation. The more money the Fed Reserve “prints” the less value the dollar has. The less value the dollar has, the more the price of goods will increase to cover the depreciation.
And mandatory wages will cause companies to increase cost. The company is in the business of making money. They’re not going to take a loss due to a regulation or a government putting themselves more into debt by borrowing more money. The consumer typically feels the increase. The business, a good business will pass the buck to ensure profit margins remain.
The big question right now is how much of the newly printed money will go into inflation or evaporate in keeping the now many unemployed people fed and in their houses…
FYI, inflation in U.S. since 2019 is about 2%. That means a $2,000 amp last year would be $2,040 this year. A far cry from the $2,500 mentioned previously.
That is why I talked about that at the end mainly talking about models sold over a long time. Clearly the pendant doesn’t fit in that realm.
Who knows why the price hike is happening but looking at the other ampsandsound amps and the pendant I don’t think it is a gross increase and is still incredibly worth it in my book
It all goes to inflation. Once it’s borrowed from the federal reserve and a note is created, its debt. And interest on top of the debt.
It will cause the dollar to depreciate regardless if its in government hands or civilian hands, it’s in the currency cycle.
You also have to consider businesses paying higher wages, and or offering health insurance due to government regulations, etc. It’s not strictly the creation of more money in circulation.
And yes, sometimes businesses will up a cost because of supply and demand.
The original question was why has prices increased. I answered and explained inflation due to a number of reasons.
Last I’m going to touch on this here because it’s getting sidetracked, but the countries will have to pay it off or they’ll go bankrupt. Or they borrow from another country and then pay them off. Or work out a deal with the central bank, which won’t be a deal (they’re bankers ). The bill always comes due.
Based on what I’ve heard through the grapevine, there will be upgrades made to the pendant that justifies the price increase. I don’t believe going from 2000 to 2500 is just from inflation.
Maybe a Jupiter cap upgrade? I’m less confident about an input transformer or larger output transformers.
Between the Stratus getting upgraded output transformers and now the Pendant, it’s cool to see advancements for gear that are already considered standard setters.
). The bill always comes due.