Market Survey for my Speaker Business - Please Help!

[barefoot]

Hi all.

I haven’t been around much these days because I'm spending every spare moment trying to launch my speaker business. I was hoping those of you who have, or plan to build, professional or semi-professional studios could help me with my business plan by answering a quick survey? I need this information to help form a pricing strategy for a new line of studio monitors I'm developing. Feel free to PM me if for any reason you don't want your answers publicly posted.

Please try and answer honestly. And if you're unfamiliar with a brand, just leave it blank. You can rate different brands with the same score. Only consider the better models within each brand.

Question I
Rate the sonic performance of each of these studio monitor brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Dynaudio -
Genelec -
JBL -
KRK -
Mackie -
Quested -

Question II
Rate the build quality and reliability of each of these studio monitor brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Dynaudio -
Genelec -
JBL -
KRK -
Mackie -
Quested -

Question III
Rate the sonic performance of each of these amplifier brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Bryston -
Hafler -
QSC -

Question IV
Rate the build quality and reliability of each of these amplifier brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Bryston -
Hafler -
QSC -

Question V
How much money did you, or do you plan to, spend on each of the following?

1. Nearfield monitors + amplification -
2. Main monitors + amplification -

Question VI
What is the floor area of your control room?

Thanks for your help!
Thomas

 

[TexRoadkill]

I haven't used all those monitors so I can't really say. I've had the same pair of NS10s for over 10rys. I'd consider spending around a grand on a good near field system system with a sub.

Before you come back in and tell me I'm crazy and that it can't be done just be forwarned that I'm very cheap

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Shoeless One:

If I answered all of your survey questions, I'd be giving away my secrets of recording.

But, in partial answer, I defer to Tex.

Green Hornet

 

[jake-owa]

I'm kinda interested in the why of the questions. Are you planning to backwards engineer the most desireable monitors and manufacture them at a lower cost?

 

[sjoko2]

Question I
Rate the sonic performance of each of these studio monitor brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Dynaudio - 9
Genelec - 5 ('make it sound good' monitors)
JBL - 6
KRK - 4
Mackie - 4
Quested - 8

Question II
Rate the build quality and reliability of each of these studio monitor brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Dynaudio - 6
Genelec - 8
JBL - 7
KRK -
Mackie - 3
Quested - 9

Question III
Rate the sonic performance of each of these amplifier brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Bryston - 6
Hafler - 7
QSC - 3

Question IV
Rate the build quality and reliability of each of these amplifier brands on a scale from 1 to 10.

Bryston -
Hafler -
QSC -

Question V
How much money did you, or do you plan to, spend on each of the following?

1. Nearfield monitors + amplification - $2000 (control room)
2. Main monitors + amplification - $12000

Question VI
What is the floor area of your control room?

360 sq ft.

 

[barefoot]

Hey, thanks for the replies so far!

Tex, GH,
$1000! Not at all crazy, but way out of pricing abilities. Those are "mass produced in Asia" prices. I need to turn a profit selling at "micro produced in California" prices.

jake-owa
No, no backwards engineering. I've identified what I'm pretty confident is a unfilled market need and I've come up with a new type of monitor design to fill it (don't want to give away too much at this point). Now I need to develop a pricing strategy using both the real and perceived value of my competitors' products as a gauge. I build speakers so the "real" part of the equation is relatively easy to determine. The perceived value, probably the most important factor, isn't as easy to determine. These questions are designed to tell me where the competitors fall into the quality-performance spectrum in the minds of my potential customers. I think I can place my speakers where I want them in this quality-performance spectrum. Then my goal is to offer them at a more affordable price, making them more attractive than the competition. On top of this, I think my designs offer things that people want which aren't really available yet. Hopefully this will all turn into a winning and profitable recipe!

sjoko,
Thanks for the thorough answers!

Thomas