Folks behind Geek Pulse announce $120,000 DAC!

[wishihadtubes]

The company behind the Geek Out/Geek Pulse has announced a $120,000 DAC and only 24 will be made in a year. Yes, that's right $120,000! Details here.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Good grief, what are they going to do? Hand build the chips? Make the case out of platinum? (somebody should try this for crazy-price audio, IIRC, it is denser than gold: I suspect that it would be, sonically, very dead indeed)

Doubtless, a $2,000 DAC would be better than what I have (there are one or two on the dream list), and perhaps a $20,000 DAC might add a tiny percentage that my now-poor ears would not be able to hear. I'm guessing that this would be about the maximum price level (and perhaps quality level) of the stuff used in the supply side of the music chain, and I'm also guessing that transparency has been achieved well before this price point. So what do we get for $120,000, apart from a price ticket to put on permanent display with the equipment?

 

[Vijay_s]

May be once we connect optical/co-axial input musicians may come out from other end and perform live. So ideal placement of DAC will be on a stage than hifi rack.

 

[haisaikat]

120K USD means close to 1 crore rupees .I think in that money I can personally visit any studio listen to original analogue master tape.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Ahhh... it wasn't mentioned that this this thing projects live holograms.

OK... that might be worth it :lol:

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing the sound from a rather nice tube amplifer. Reading about it on the net, later, I found that the company says that each one takes 30 days to build. Not a few minutes on a production line, but a whole month of, I guess, mostly hand work.

It was an expensive amp, but this much money would buy four. Or five.

Still... until they actually make the thing....

 

[indialogue]

It must be bathed in unicorn milk and the sheet metal must be hammered by Thor or Sauron to justify such a price. Ridiculous. One of these days, these audiophile guys are going to hit wall of Veblen Goods and I for one cannot wait for that day to arrive soon

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Somebody will say, "but you haven't heard it."

Heck, even I came close...

Still... until they actually make the thing....

There is a way of thinking among hifi buyers, and it happens at all levels of the scale. It is the each and every item should cost the same or more.

It has got so bad that it it now applies not only to the components, but to the interconnects too. And people take it all for granted that that is ok. And people, to some extent ...includes me

 

[Santy]

So every year they are going to add 24 audiophools in this World.

 

[jimtranr]

Needless to say, I won't be one of their 24 customers this year. hyeah:

 

[captrajesh]

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing the sound from a rather nice tube amplifer. Reading about it on the net, later, I found that the company says that each one takes 30 days to build. Not a few minutes on a production line, but a whole month of, I guess, mostly hand work.

Interesting! Which one is that?

 

[reignofchaos]

Most of these outrageously priced equipment have a 'press price' which is touted to everyone. Once you actually show some seriousness, the actual price you might have to pay shall be significantly lower. However for this piece of equipment, that price will still be pretty crazy.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Interesting! Which one is that?

It is before we last met, and I'm sure we discussed it. I always think that forum members should be the ones to decide (for all sorts of reasons including security) if they want their gear mentioned online --- but the brand is Wavac

 

[denom]

It is before we last met, and I'm sure we discussed it. I always think that forum members should be the ones to decide (for all sorts of reasons including security) if they want their gear mentioned online --- but the brand is Wavac

I know whom your talking about
Wait till he gets the matching wavac pre or has he got it already??? hyeah:

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I would imagine that a lot of forum members know who I'm talking about, but I'm still shy of explicit mentions

As far as I know, he's still "making do" with another preamp. But probably saving up

 

[square_wave]

Pretty much agree with ROC.

And, there is a market for everything. Lets say someone owns a 35k $ DAC. These are super rich audiophiles. If this thing makes about 20 % difference to the sound, they will buy it at a super bargain price (maybe 35 % off from retail price) The math is imaginary but that is pretty much how they think

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

They will probably claim a 0.0002% difference to the sound.

Part of this is liking to claim that that can hear 0.0002%. That, coupled with the price paid, all adds to the ego trip.

Well, probably there are people who can hear that small difference. They are the ones who would know if that difference is worthwhile or not, and they might not be the actual buyers.

Yes, there is a market for everything --- and the super-rich luxury market is a pretty good one to be in, because, even in hard times, the super-rich are still amazingly wealthy.

 

[indialogue]

the super-rich luxury market is a pretty good one to be in, because, even in hard times, the super-rich are still amazingly wealthy.

Yep. There was a news article today on how all the 100-odd S-class Mercedes cars allotted by the company for India (selling for 1.3 crore each, the latest model) got sold in less than 2 weeks flat. Mercedes was planning to sell 100-odd/year and India showed them!! :yahoosarcastic)

 

[greenhorn]

Most of the R&D for products like these are of the type Bose does, building on the work of eminent geniuses like Phil Kotler.

 

[wishihadtubes]

If there are folks who want to buy a $120,000 DAC, that's great. I'll be happy if the tech developed by firms like Light Harmonic for such DACs trickles down to products like the Geek Out and Geek Pulse.