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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: CD player prices are down, how about disks?
Message-ID: <1742@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 13:45:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1742
Posted: Thu Sep 26 13:45:46 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Oct-85 08:06:30 EDT
References: <124@ur-tut.UUCP>
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> From what I gather on CD player prices, you can now get a fairly
> basic model starting at about $180.  The disks still seem to cost
> about $12 and up.  After collecting a disk library of 10 to 15 disks,
> your disks will have cost you more than the player!  I wonder if anyone
> in net-land has found disk prices coming down?  Especially for classical
> music.  Or, does anyone have a prediction of what year disks will cost
> about $5? -- Jon Krueger

Well, an ordinary low-end turntable can be bought for $100 or so, with 
freebie cartridge thrown in. (Or a really basic model can be gotten for
$59 or even less, but lets stick with this figure -- it is near the
average cost according to some industry figures I've seen a while ago.)
New LP records cost from $5 - $9 or so, lets use $7 as a strawman. That
means that your LP record collection exceeds your turntable cost as soon
as you buy 15 or so records. That doesn't seem too out-of-line with the
above CD playing-device-to-software cost ratio, does it? 

Sure, you can spend a lot more for a turntable. You can spend a lot more
for a CD player, too. The key factor, of course, that I left out so far
is that you can get LPs for a *lot* less than $7, if you buy cutouts or
on special sales. CD's haven't sunk below the $10 level except for some
rare exceptions. With the current demand, it is unlikely that true
cutout CD's will be available for $2 each at your local dimestore for a
good long while. (But it seems that even cutout LPs are more likely than
not priced at $2.99 or $3.99 instead of 3/$1.00 these days, so the
possible savings are lower than they used to be.)

I don't think that any rationale can be found in this particular
argument to force CD disk cost lower. It has long been an audio-ad
cliche' that your record collection is your most expensive component.
Why would CDs be any different?

Will


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