Why do SSA subwoofers cost what they do?

[///M5 2,833]

Awe look at ///M5 junior with the cute signature, haha

You made me turn sigs on. Rofl.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Wow, I go out of town for an alumni event for the weekend, and BLAM!

 

It should be obvious why I don't say what our costs are, but yes, they are drastically more costly to build our sub woofers here in the USA then overseas.  It is a mixture of comical and frustrating when competitor's sub woofers that are built overseas.  As mentioned earlier, there is few aspects that really effect our build costs that others are not doing.  The CNC machining of motors/poles is a huge portion of our build cost per sub woofers.  Many brands will just use nuts as spacers between the motor stack and the basket, but our sub woofers are using spiral axis cooling channels on the pole.  This does a number of things for superior cooling of the coil, but that is a different topic, what maters here is the time and cost on the CNC machine for each one built.  Because of that extra care, time and effort, it cannot be easily done in mass quantities.  Also, when not turning a large margin on our products, it means we have less to play with when it comes to expanding our company.  It does piss me off when some fool says our products are over priced, they truly haven't a clue and need to be slapped.  

 

People have been asking me for a number of years now why we don't have amps or a full line up of mid's and highs etc.  This is because the standard now is for someone with no audio background, to just call up a build house overseas, use a credit card and a pre-order, and TADA with in 18-24 months they have a full line up of sub woofers, amplifiers and more.  I don't want our brand to be like that.  Sure, our growth has been much less rapid as all the new offerings that show up every year, and sure Mark and I are not putting anywhere near what we would like into our pockets  due to the higher build cost and much lower volume of sales, but we have near-ZERO warranty failure, a very strong return customer base, and the assurance of one of the highest levels of quality of materials and performance from our sub woofers to every customer that picks SSA for their sub woofer needs.  

 

We are trying to take the superior, long term thinking approach to these other brands that show up out of no where, as there is much more time and effort invested into each and every one of our sub woofers.  It means we are not killing it in the bank account or hitting the golf course in the middle of the day, or expanding into new major markets overseas etc..  One perfect example, was the beautifully explained break down of the Xcon above.  In short, the CNC machining, the addition of a shorting ring (long coil, so inductance was brought down a little) and the much more steel used (instead of a simple triple stack), creates a better sub all around and that is a powerful piece of mind.  It is a very good thing to know and to have, even if we are not making much from each unit sold.  We run with a very low overhead and keep our expenses to a minimum.

 

Having our sub's machined and built here in the USA (even using steel from California), just does not matter to the masses anymore.  The wildfire virus of the American consumer, is the extreme short shortsightedness and only seeing initial price to them, and not the long term.  It is more then about keeping more of the money from the purchase price here in the USA, it is also understanding the higher level of quality and performance they are getting.  We do gain a number of customers who had a shorter then liked, life span of their prior sub woofer that was made overseas.

 

So in short, to sort of answer the first question, the factors that go into the costs of our products:

 

• place of build (USA) {cost of labor etc.}
• source of materials
• quality of materials
• quality of parts
• extra steps taken for better performance
• the details in many of the models
• low volume sales
• made-to-order production

[crackinhedz 51]

Thanks Aaron,

Exactly why I made the switch to SSA and bought the Xcon!

[SGunnem 51]

Wow, I go out of town for an alumni event for the weekend, and BLAM!

 

It should be obvious why I don't say what our costs are, but yes, they are drastically more costly to build our sub woofers here in the USA then overseas.  It is a mixture of comical and frustrating when competitor's sub woofers that are built overseas.  As mentioned earlier, there is few aspects that really effect our build costs that others are not doing.  The CNC machining of motors/poles is a huge portion of our build cost per sub woofers.  Many brands will just use nuts as spacers between the motor stack and the basket, but our sub woofers are using spiral axis cooling channels on the pole.  This does a number of things for superior cooling of the coil, but that is a different topic, what maters here is the time and cost on the CNC machine for each one built.  Because of that extra care, time and effort, it cannot be easily done in mass quantities.  Also, when not turning a large margin on our products, it means we have less to play with when it comes to expanding our company.  It does piss me off when some fool says our products are over priced, they truly haven't a clue and need to be slapped.  

 

People have been asking me for a number of years now why we don't have amps or a full line up of mid's and highs etc.  This is because the standard now is for someone with no audio background, to just call up a build house overseas, use a credit card and a pre-order, and TADA with in 18-24 months they have a full line up of sub woofers, amplifiers and more.  I don't want our brand to be like that.  Sure, our growth has been much less rapid as all the new offerings that show up every year, and sure Mark and I are not putting anywhere near what we would like into our pockets  due to the higher build cost and much lower volume of sales, but we have near-ZERO warranty failure, a very strong return customer base, and the assurance of one of the highest levels of quality of materials and performance from our sub woofers to every customer that picks SSA for their sub woofer needs.  

 

We are trying to take the superior, long term thinking approach to these other brands that show up out of no where, as there is much more time and effort invested into each and every one of our sub woofers.  It means we are not killing it in the bank account or hitting the golf course in the middle of the day, or expanding into new major markets overseas etc..  One perfect example, was the beautifully explained break down of the Xcon above.  In short, the CNC machining, the addition of a shorting ring (long coil, so inductance was brought down a little) and the much more steel used (instead of a simple triple stack), creates a better sub all around and that is a powerful piece of mind.  It is a very good thing to know and to have, even if we are not making much from each unit sold.  We run with a very low overhead and keep our expenses to a minimum.

 

Having our sub's machined and built here in the USA (even using steel from California), just does not matter to the masses anymore.  The wildfire virus of the American consumer, is the extreme short shortsightedness and only seeing initial price to them, and not the long term.  It is more then about keeping more of the money from the purchase price here in the USA, it is also understanding the higher level of quality and performance they are getting.  We do gain a number of customers who had a shorter then liked, life span of their prior sub woofer that was made overseas.

 

So in short, to sort of answer the first question, the factors that go into the costs of our products:

 

• place of build (USA) {cost of labor etc.}
• source of materials
• quality of materials
• quality of parts
• extra steps taken for better performance
• the details in many of the models
• low volume sales
• made-to-order production

 

 

Thanks for responding, I appreciate your professionalism.