Price, Brand and Perception
Tom Martin -- Sat, 05/31/2008 - 10:48
In another thread on another topic Audiophile Realist wrote:
"Are the differences perceived magnified or diminished based upon or preconceived notions of value? I'll propose it again - price and brand has a profound affect on our perception of performance. "
I replied:
"It seems likely to me that price and brand impact perception. The way in which that perception works and the way in which it changes over time is worth noting. First, price and brand affect expectations. For example, I have had many good experiences over time with Audio Research gear. So, when a new ARC product arrives for review, I'm human and I tend to think "this could be good" and I happily insert the product into my test rig. In ARC's case, if the new product is less than amazing, I tend to be a little disappointed. With another brand, say one I don't know about (and where I frequently don't know the price -- something I usually get only after the review is drafted), my expectations are lower. This happened with the Spectron class D amp. It did some exceptional things, and with low expectations, I initially thought I had discovered the holy grail.
But over time, these thoughts tend to diminish, and the multi-factor reality of the product comes to dominate. I, and some other reviewers, use specific procedures to help with this. One I really like is to use review equipment for regular daily music listening. I tend to have multiple products of a type on hand (this is hardest with big speakers), and I simply see which I want to listen to outside of the review context. Then I ask why? Usually the reasons are quite clear and firmly rooted in sonic performance. Of course I could be deluding myself and everything could come from my price/brand preconceptions. But this idea doesn't square very well with having the urge to go listen to disc after disc on a piece of gear. Nor does it square very well with other listeners describing the sound of my test gear in similar terms to my notes, given that they don't know what gear is being used."
Quote:"Are the differences perceived magnified or diminished based upon or preconceived notions of value? I'll propose it again - price and brand has a profound affect on our perception of performance. "
If I may be forgiven for self-promoting:
The Economics of High-End Audio
The Role of Psychological Factors in the Evaluation of Audio Products
Larry
"Digital finishes what the transistor began" James Boyk
This is helpful. To summarize: audio equipment exists in a market. There are low barriers to entry, resulting in lots of manufacturers, lots of product and consumer choice. This makes it unlikely that there is zero relationship between price and utility.
What complicates this is:
a) Utility may consist of non-performance factors like brand, service, availability and even price
b) But, audio is mainly not a social good, so for many people utility will primarily be based on personal values
c) And, the audio market is not perfect (information flows in particular are bad at the high end), and so there will probably be both bargains and outstanding though undersold product at high prices
As much as I hate to see my article reduced to three bullet points :) , that pretty much sums it up.
"Digital finishes what the transistor began" James Boyk
Larry -- I thought you did a nice job of outlining why we shouldn't expect price/performance to be neat and clean, but that doesn't mean that it is completely chaotic either. Can you comment on that?
I'm almost certainly reaching beyond my knowledge base but heck, that never stopped me before. :)
I imagine the situation is not chaotic (though a visit to AudioAsylum suggests otherwise...) because despite variation in personal tastes, there is sufficient concensus as to what constitutes a superior product.
Make sense?
Larry
"Digital finishes what the transistor began" James Boyk
Yes. In addition, part of what I got out of your paper was the idea that we shouldn't confuse outlier behavior in a market with the basic pattern of behavior. Some people will buy expensive and lowish-performing product (bad value in some sense), and some people will buy cheap junk. But that doesn't mean that the predominant pattern isn't one of getting the good value for money.
Precisely. And well said.
"Digital finishes what the transistor began" James Boyk
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