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That's $850,000 Australian dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm looking at purchasing 2 storey houses in the Manly beach area suburbs for less than 3 x that, somethings definitely not right here!
Cheers George
Børresen Loudspeaker's Major World Premiere
No show coverage would be complete without a preview of Børresen's major M6 loudspeaker ($550,000/pair) world premiere. Joining forces with products from the three other companies that comprise Audio Group Denmark, Børresen's M6 dominated an exceedingly large room in the extremely attractive exhibit mounted by US Distributor/Dealer Next Level HiFi.
At the heart of the M6 lies a "topology-optimized 3D-printed basket made of zirconium" designed to ensure maximum rigidity and minimum vibration and resonance. There's a lot more original thought and technology behind the speaker, of course, all of which is detailed on Audio Group Denmark's website. You don't need me to regurgitate what you can read for yourself. But it is important to note that as much as the speaker is bi-ampable—it is part of Michael Børresen's first line of bi-ampable speakers— Next Level HiFi couldn't obtain two Aavik 250W amps in time for the show. Hence, the speaker was at a bit of a disadvantage from the get-go.
It's rare that I encourage people to take my show reports with a grain of salt, but in this case, a dip in the Great Salt Lake, imperiled as it may be, seems in order. The reason is simple. Because the pair of M6s on display had just arrived from Denmark via the Chicago area—this huge speaker requires up to 500 hours of break-in before it sounds its best—they only had 100–150 hours on them. Having already discovered how some of the hotel's huge rooms tended to overemphasize the lower midrange and upper bass, I have no idea if the over-emphasis and extra resonance I heard in that region reflected the speaker's true character, the speaker's character in the early stages of break-in, room interactions, or a combination of all three. (I expect the latter.) But beyond that, the soundstage was huge, depth was impressive, and low bass lines were as fleshed out as can be.
The speaker's companions included four not exactly inexpensive Aavik electronic components: the Aavik C-880 ($70,000), P-880 ($70,000), D-580 ($25,200), and S-580 ($25,200). The Ansuz cabling and related products were often more expensive and included the Ansuz Gold Signature Mainz8 Power Distributor ($64,000) and Gold Signature speaker cables ($162,000/5m pair). The system's retail price was well over a million dollars. Don't even begin to think about the shipping cost.
Alas, I only heard one of the two systems in the room. Hence, I missed my first opportunity to hear the far lower-priced AXXESS Forte III ($11,000), the top model in a new line of three all-in-one integrated amplifiers that include a built-in streamer, DAC and headphone amp. Here's to my next encounter with Audio Group Denmark and the opportunity to hear the M6 in its full glory.
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COMMENTS
You're right.
Submitted by rschryer on June 28, 2023 - 6:12pm
As per Google when I searched for "manly beach australia home prices": "The median house price in Manly is 4,035,000 AU$ based on 41 sales in the past 12 months—that's a decrease of 12%" — realestate.com.au
You know how many pairs of Børresen Major M6 loudspeakers you can buy for that kind of money?
You can find them even lower.
Submitted by georgehifi on June 28, 2023 - 7:14pm
5 pages of what's selling now, all in the Manly/Warringah area
https://www.realestate.com.au/buy/property-house-townhouse-villa-land-ac...
Cheers George
Hmmmm, that would still be none.
Submitted by Anton on June 29, 2023 - 1:49pm
"You know how many pairs of Børresen Major M6 loudspeakers you can buy for that kind of money?"
Not enough to even to do Atmos correctly?
Tough economic issue for the hobby: How can someone call 'bullshit' on ridiculous pricing without being branded an envious nattering nabob of negativity?
On the other hand, in 5 years, we'll be saying how these speakers only cost as much as 4-5 'encapsulated' LPs.
;-D
The main purpose of these $550K speakers is to ...
Submitted by Ortofan on June 30, 2023 - 10:41am
... make the Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX appear to be a veritable bargain at a mere $349K.
Just as these speaker prices seem to ...
Submitted by Ortofan on July 1, 2023 - 1:49pm
... have no upper limits.
To look at it another way, $550K will buy a new Rolls-Royce Phantom motorcar, with about $75K remaining to buy an audio system (for your home).
Can the case be made that the cost of the R&D, materials, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of these speakers meets or exceeds that of the Rolls-Royce? If so, I'd like to hear it.
My first speakers were a pair of Advents, bought from a local dealer who also sold McIntosh equipment. The speakers that dealer sold, along with McIntosh electronics, in a "high-end" system were either the AR LST or the JBL L200 - depending upon whether you wanted "east coast" or "west coast" sound. Back then either of those speakers were priced at $1,200/pr - or about $8K, today. There were a few more expensive speakers available, such as the OHM model A, the Infinity Servo-Statik and the Dayton-Wright electrostatics. They sold for about $2K, the equivalent of about $14K, now.
How have we progressed from top-of-the-line speakers that would now cost no more than $14K - or $8K, for that matter - to those priced at $550K (and above)? How much (or little) does one need to spend on pair of speakers on order to be able to enjoy your preference in recorded music?
At the Munich show there was a room with four different complete systems on display, all with an upper price limit of 5,000€. Did Stereophile report on it? Nope. Why not?
Here we go again...
Submitted by Jason Victor Serinus on July 1, 2023 - 2:27pm
One person covered Munich High End: me. Ken Micallef was scheduled to join me, but he was flat on his back with a shattered ankle. I covered as many premieres that I could listen to and was able to cover. And I was guided by press releases, including those posted on the High End site but never sent to Stereophile.
I'm glad you were able to read about the room at another site.
I'm done with responding to you.
Has Stereophile considered hiring a ...
Submitted by Ortofan on July 1, 2023 - 6:40pm
... "Summer intern" whose assignment would be to attend the Munich show - and any other shows during the Summer - and report on any equipment whose prices do not encroach on those for cars, or houses?
"Not enough to even to do Atmos correctly?"
Submitted by rschryer on June 30, 2023 - 5:44pm
Damn you, Atmos.
Zirconium?
Submitted by fkrausz on June 29, 2023 - 6:48am
Even with those unobtanium drivers, and hand-crafted by authentic Scandinavian trolls, I don't see how it costs anywhere near a half-million to make these. I mean, that's several Boesendorfer grands. And if it's not cost-plus pricing, who on earth would the owner be trying to impress?
Yes these are really crazy
Submitted by celef on June 29, 2023 - 12:09pm
Yes these are really crazy prices, i find it almost criminal to charge this amount, face it, they are ripping customers of
about criminal prices
Submitted by anto56 on June 29, 2023 - 1:21pm
I found criminal too that you continue to present product of this prices to the general attendance of this site.
Redirect your pieces only to oil tycoons !
Never mind the price...
Submitted by ChrisS on June 29, 2023 - 6:45pm
...of these speakers!!
How about helping me out with a bag of groceries??
Stand mount for 100,000€?
Submitted by noamgeller on June 29, 2023 - 10:34pm
Stand mount for 100,000€?
This m6 for 500,000€?
15 years ago you could have bought a sonus Faber stradivary for about 30,000€... a Focal Utopia Em for 120,000€. That was the absolute pinnacle and highest price for a speaker (empty box with some drivers in it).
I find this prices ridiculous and aggravating! Why buy Borreson m6 when you can buy two pairs of MAGICO M6!! and still have some spare change.
Does this money relate to sonic satisfaction? If so, they should stop kidding themselves, I truly hope nobody is falling for this emperor new clothes- pathetic.
Dear Stereophile writers you have some responsibility in that matter, please don't give fuel to this madness, it just gives our wonderful hobby a ridiculous face.
Hey, it's your choice!
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 12:01am
Has Putin been whispering in your ear "Buy these, or I send you to Bakmut!"...?
It is more of a problem then
Submitted by noamgeller on June 30, 2023 - 3:30am
It is more of a problem then you suggested.
Reviewers giving the stage for ever more expensive gear while pushing consumers to believe that for better sound you have to pay even more... pushing other companies to raise prices- to maintain this believe and thus stay in the game...= you and I and 99.999% of the high-end readers are out of the ball game.
Some companies know that this game is bull#t and refuse to raise prices and are suffering the consequences by not getting any cover what so ever.
BTW, it was my 6th time in
Submitted by noamgeller on June 30, 2023 - 3:35am
BTW, it was my 6th time in Munich high End and after hearing all the modern bling blibg had to offer I felt cheated when a 97 years old western Electric trump their offerings and delivered best sound of show
https://youtu.be/_Qk3Gyfl-S0
Are we going backwards or forwards?
What problem?
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 9:04am
I'll just wait for a used pair of these speakers to show up in my local thrift shop...
Meanwhile, back to the grocery store.
I am equally outraged that...
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 10:16am
...so many Ford Motor vehicles are on the road these days!
I don't care how much they cost...
Or who you are trying to impress!
I demand everyone stop driving these monstrosities immediately!!
The next great uprising will be in a year, or two, from ...
Submitted by Ortofan on June 30, 2023 - 10:33am
... Tesla owners when Ford (and GM) EV owners start clogging up the superchargers.
The Uprising is already happening!!
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 10:47am
https://insideevs.com/features/405468/video-sentry-woman-unplug-tesla-model-3/
It was quiet at first...
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 12:20pm
...but now I hear that rising crescendo of voices chanting...
"Pull the plug! Pull the plug!..."
Here in Germany we tend to
Submitted by noamgeller on June 30, 2023 - 12:07pm
Here in Germany we tend to ignore ford and drive German cars.
For 500,000 I could buy 15 Golf variants and start my own leasing company. Bonkers don´t you agree? and the best thing is that each and any one of them has pretty good stereo as well! ho and listening chair as well!
Seriously though, why are you defending companies who clearly think were idio...ts?
and let us not start about 40
Submitted by noamgeller on June 30, 2023 - 12:12pm
and let us not start about 40,000Euro XLR cables...
In munich I wanted to have a glimpse of the behind of those wilson chronosonics. a fu...ing body guard in a suit stopped me like he is guarding a celebrity :O
Did you ask them
Submitted by Jason Victor Serinus on June 30, 2023 - 10:31pm
why you couldn't look? Do you think it possible that other people had been putting their hands all over the controls and even messing with the adjustments or poking the drivers. (It happens.)] I wasn't present so I have no idea. But labeling someone in a suit as a bodyguard without knowing if they were is pretty inflammatory.
As Robert says, it's a damn show report. If you only want to read censored news, news that's in accord with your preferences, or reviews that are bought by audio companies, your choices are plentiful.
The big Wilson room in Munich
Submitted by noamgeller on July 1, 2023 - 12:04am
The big Wilson room in Munich high end does indeed resembles an Hollywood celebrities show. With red ropes, glasses of wine? And many people in suits, some are clearly there to prevent people like me to go anyway near the gear.
Dear Jason, nobody is going to poke anything or touch any controls, I assume that preventing people from being near such gear is to maintain the drama of high end price.
BTW, as you probably already know, a Wilson chronosonic speaker uses scan speak drivers, relevator and elluminator series, those drivers are 300$ max.
Brushing off with a statement of-"its just a damn show report" is not the intelligent response I planned with and shows only the ignorance of the industry. There is really no fighting this inflation, so I'll keep my disbelief to myself while thinking they all went bananas!
And last comment from my part
Submitted by noamgeller on July 1, 2023 - 12:40am
And last comment from my part. I love this industry and passionate about sound reproduction like all of them...
But I know for a fact that many didn't came to munich high-end because of the ongoing price inflation, and many that did came, are tired of going from room to room when all of them are over half a million. You see most of my audiophiles friends are educated guys and smell bull#t from miles away.
Thank you for this
Submitted by Jason Victor Serinus on July 10, 2023 - 12:35pm
A few other recordings to consider:
Madeleine Grey in something like 1932. This is the first recording. Totally different. The difference may shock you. Canteloube dedicated this first set of songs to her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LybnxwCP1c
Frederica von Stade
Victoria de los Angeles
The audiophile classic by Netania Davrath on Vanguard
Thank you, I'll definitely
Submitted by noamgeller on July 10, 2023 - 12:42pm
Thank you, I'll definitely listen to it.
Absolutely sublime...
audiophools
Submitted by David Harper on June 30, 2023 - 11:22am
"high end" audiophiles think price dictates sound quality. A $10K amplifier must sound a little better than a $9K amplifier.
That's what grocery stores want to have us think...`
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 11:26am
...about bananas.
The higher priced bananas sound better!
For the price of these speakers, I could...
Submitted by ChrisS on June 30, 2023 - 12:55pm
...be eating high priced, good sounding bananas for the rest of my life!
it all sums up to
Submitted by ok on June 30, 2023 - 1:37pm
..whether stereophile and related press is a buying guide or audio porn or both and in what percentage for that matter.
It's just a show report
Submitted by rschryer on June 30, 2023 - 7:15pm
But I can attest that two online publications, right now, are doing the "pay-to-play" practice — popular ones! I've seen it! Stereophile isn't one of them. (Or else I wouldn't write for Stereophile.)
one interesting thing
Submitted by ok on July 1, 2023 - 1:43pm
..about hi-end audio shows is that under non-laboratory conditions this kind of stuff can sound as bad as anything.
M6 is a bargain, compared to the speaker cables
Submitted by chanabijoy on July 2, 2023 - 3:20am
$162,000 for a pair of speaker cables? I'd seriously like to know how the pricing was done for that. "It definitely sounds 10 times better than $16,200 cables." Or "Let's take research/development + cost of raw materials and multiply it by--hey Joe, what's your favorite number above 100?" Or "It doesn't matter. Whatever we price it at, the people who buy these products will buy it no matter what." All kidding aside, I would like to know how hi-fi audio pricing is done generally.
The pricing for high end gear
Submitted by noamgeller on July 2, 2023 - 8:59am
The pricing for high end gear is clearly done on a napkin after drinking the infamous Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster at the restaurant at the end of the universe.
Thank you Douglas Adams for uncovering so many mysteries:)
Pricing by marketing vs (technical) design
Submitted by music or sound on July 2, 2023 - 11:32am
Almost all if not all ultra high priced audio equipment does not have any real technical design differences to cheaper units. The only technical improvement Borresen implemented was the use of ironless drivers. The impact of iron in the magnetic structure of speaker drivers and the technical advantages of ironless drivers has been published by several French groups in the last 2 decades so I find it positive that one company uses this technology in their upper end series.
Borresen 01 mini monitor was the first one to use this driver technology for a 30K price but then used silver editions for almost 3x the price with no obvious technical advantage and this got expanded with 6 drivers to the M6.
The pricing is not really correlated with the cost of the drivers (even if they are more costly to produce) but with marketing and the most efficient way of marketing are articles by reviewers. I am questioning the rationale for reporting on ultra expensive gear none of the reader (or reviewers if the really have to pay the same price) can afford.
Why toys for billionaires become cultural icons?
If anything about the technology used to produce...
Submitted by ChrisS on July 2, 2023 - 11:42am
...these ultra expensive products is cutting edge, then perhaps that same technology will appear in our own listening rooms soon!
If not, then they're just ultra expensive toys.
People like their toys.
not cutting edge
Submitted by music or sound on July 2, 2023 - 11:48am
the 01 is several years old design and this is not a toy for people but billionaires
Not cutting edge?
Submitted by ChrisS on July 4, 2023 - 3:40pm
Then in a few years you can purchase a set of these speakers for 1/2 price!
Placement of Børresen Loudspeakers
Submitted by curbfeeler on July 2, 2023 - 2:57pm
I noted that the imaging of these speakers collapsed quickly to the left or the right with a small shift from the central listening position. Børresen might have been better served had the speakers been closer to each other. Certainly the Von Schweikert speakers in a similar room but more closely spaced maintained imaging better across the seating area when I auditioned them.
imaging and soundstage
Submitted by David Harper on July 4, 2023 - 9:07am
I've been an audiophile for fifty years and I have never in my life heard "imaging" or a "soundstage" from any home audio system. In my opinion these things are audiophile fiction. Imaginary nonsense. How could two speakers playing recorded music possibly do this when most music is mixed and multi-tracked in the recording process? There was never any "soundstage" in the original recording process.
David, you may be a figment...
Submitted by ChrisS on July 4, 2023 - 3:31pm
...of someone's imagination, or
you may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato...
...There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!
(Apologies to Dickens)
Imaging myth
Submitted by Gregory68 on July 5, 2023 - 12:33pm
I too went decades with out ever hearing imaging. When I finial did heard it it was mind blowing. I tried to have others experience it in my family. All they did was look at me, smile and, say yes it sounds good. I’m sorry you have yet to hear it. It’s out there but still hard to recreate and not everyone seems to hear it on the same system or the same recording.
Really?? No soundstage, no imaging??
Submitted by ChrisS on July 5, 2023 - 2:43pm
I heard soundstaging/imaging listening to my parents rec room system (Dynaco A25 speakers/Sony 6045 receiver/Thorens 145 turntable), and to my first college stereo system (AR6 speakers/Marantz 2216 receiver/Technics SL-150 turntable)!
I even heard a soundstage and stereo imaging from a mini Sony desktop system I set up for my father.
Are you sure you have more than 1 speaker?
Despite being an Elvis Presley fan, I have...
Submitted by ChrisS on July 4, 2023 - 10:13am
...never met him.
How do I know he is real?
David, you have...
Submitted by ChrisS on July 4, 2023 - 3:47pm
...declared yourself a fiction.
To be or not to be.
Get a copy of the ...
Submitted by Ortofan on July 4, 2023 - 7:34pm
... Elvis at Roswell concert DVD.
"I've been an audiophile for
Submitted by georgehifi on July 4, 2023 - 4:41pm
"I've been an audiophile for fifty years and I have never in my life heard "imaging" or a "soundstage" from any home audio system."
One click for this one https://tinyurl.com/2xlmkzcd
Cheers George
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