DJL said:
Hi Alan, please don't take this the wrong way, because I know your trying to do a good thing by bring the SP C4 mic cost down... but, I remember right after I bought a MXLV67G the price dropped and the mic lost close to half it's resale value... the same thing happend right after I bought a VTB-1, again the price dropped and the VTB-1 loss a lot of it's value. Thanks
DJL,
Your question is a good one, so I will answer it. In answering I will have to make comments or offer opinions, so in doing so, I am not Spamming, promoting or selling.
I do not want to drive the market down or make people lose money. This “is” what is happening to the market! There are thousands of new buyers getting into recording each day. Every computer sold today is a potential home studio. Nothing PMI Audio has produced has lost half its value like you say Marshall has, and the fact is, at these prices, we are talking about expendable money.
Today, you can pay $100.00 for a good mic and another $100.00 for a good mic pre. You can use it for 20 years, so the cost is nothing. In 3 years if you tossed them out, you got your monies worth. So what have you lost compared to losing hundreds or thousands?
Ten years from now your mics will be worth very little compared to what you paid for them, unless it is a vintage C12, ELM250, U67/47 or other collector mic. If it is not a collector mic, then forget it, you will lose money. Most everything losses money!
As for the C4, well the C4's reduction is a need to be priced more in line with the RODE NT5 in my opinion. At this price, Studio Projects can show a better value for the money, and I think we will do that at $319.99, but necessarily at $369.99. It does not matter to anybody what you, or myself think about a product. All that matters, is did the product work? Harvey Gerst speaks from “his” experiences, and those opinions may not be right for others either. Product knowledge is a good thing, as is experience, but not everyone hears the same. Point is…Harvey smokes Camels, so is Camels the best or only Cigarette on the market for the money? I don’t know what he smoke’s, I am just making a statement! You don’t smoke them because he does…you smoke them because you like them. I hate smoking, so I don’t smoke! So now what? That is why companies have to bring many products to market that compete.
There are all different kinds of mics and outboard gear out there. People are looking for a dark transformer mic like the V67. The C1 is a different sounding mic and more expensive, but we don’t reduce its price as the C1 is worth its price. What we will do is offer the new
Joemeek JM47, a clone of the V67 only with a pad and filter out of the Feilo factory where the V67 came from originally. We will offer
the Joemeek JM27…same mic as the ADK SC1, Marshall 603 and some others at $59.00. We give the market what they want. Why, because the market wants it! How can you worry about loosing money at these prices?
I can't help that the market wants better quality for less money. That is just the way it is. There will always be the high end and big buck products, and let me tell you how much they will lose in 10 years. Look at the Sony APR24 ten years ago. Are the big boy toys worth it? Yes, to those that make their money from it, but the masses today are basement guys having fun, making records at home which you could not do 20 years ago for $100K. This is where the business is going, and why record companies are dying. If, and I say “IF” a decent engineer has decent budget equipment and a decent room to work with, the results will not be very much different if done at a Pro Studio.
In closing, since you are concerned with value, the entire B Series is going up in price on March 1st. So all those B Series owners just made money on their Studio Projects mics! The B1, B3, and TB1 are going up. We will add some extra value and will now include the shock mount. Each will go up about $20.00 or more at street price, and the TB1, which happens to be one of the best sounding tube mics out there at the new $279.00 price according to Mix and EQ magazine, will get a larger new case.
I hope this helps you understand why we do these things….
Alan Hyatt
PMI Audio Group