What makes something high end?

Prev Next

My son Scott is being thrown into the fire without a protective suit, answering hundreds of emails and questions about his new product Sprout; some pretty rough. I feel for him. It's really generous when people help him get the word out and support his ongoing effort, the flip side is all the naturally occurring questions; some can be rather heated and direct. One gentleman lambasted Scott over his claim Sprout is a high end piece. The poster pointed out that an Audio Research product is high end, Sprout is anything but. I would imagine all my readers would chuckle a little at this poster's assertion; Audio Research is clearly high end, but why would one automatically assume a small integrated isn't? It got me to thinking about the question. What makes one thing high end while the other isn't? I am sure it's not price - if it were then products like the Audioquest Dragonfly USB DAC wouldn't be accepted in high end circles. I am sure we've all heard stelar sounding budget systems and equipment. And to be honest, it doesn't really have to apply just to hi fi to be high end. I would suggest there's high end foods, high end cars, high end cameras, high end lots of stuff. No, I think high end has to do with intent. Did you intend to build a product that serves the masses and makes everyone a little happy and gives little reason for anyone to be upset and reject it? Or did you build a product designed specifically to honor the end goal first, and worry about what people would think second? The first is what Bose and McDonalds does. The second is high end.
Back to blog
Paul McGowan

Founder & CEO

Never miss a post

Subscribe

Related Posts


1 of 2