I think Moogs manufacturing methods are a bit different from Korg and Behringer. A buddy of mine was assembling the Moog modular reissues (and possibly the Model Ds) by hand, in Asheville, NC. Certainly, not all of their products are made that way but that kind of work is very expensive when it's done by humans. That doesn't mean much to a musician on a budget but for that reason, it's great that there are more budget conscious options which are built on a larger scale.idfpower wrote:Agreed. It's time to cash in. The production costs have dropped, but most companies still price their stuff up. Same factories, same raw mats, just different brands labelled on. And for that alone, the price goes through the roof. It's not ok.Albert.VST wrote:Modern manufacturing technology should bring prices down, Korg also proved this with a polyphonic synth for ~$ 500.
Smaller companies cannot afford to buy parts in the same quantities as Behringer, so they don't get the same price breaks. They can't automate as much of the manufacturing/QC process, so it's more expensive for them to make a competitive product. Modern manufacturing is an amazing thing when you are building 10,000's of units but it can be prohibitively expensive for companies who have a smaller customer base, for that reason, smaller companies have to turn to third-party contract manufacturers, in order to compete with companies who operate on a larger scale.
Often innovation comes from smaller companies, who take risks. Then, once it's been established that a new (or dormant) market segment is profitable, larger companies come in, after a lot of the risk has been sussed out. It's not bad or unethical. It's just that (in my opinion), both approaches have their necessary place in the larger ecosystem of technology.
