Please buy anything other than that driver, the GRS is pretty close (except for efficiency), the ODEUM line has way more xmax and less inductance. How did they justify a $200 price tag for a stamped frame and 80 oz ferrite motor with nearly 4.0mH of inductance? Are supply chains that fucked?
Posted Jun 7, 2022, 11:10 PM UTC
Curious if there are any others that are better price / performance?
the problem is the PA460 is tested, and the other really aren't so I don't want to say exactly what would be better price/performance, but the GRS 18pt seems good (less motor force and sensitivity but literally 1/3rd the cost) and the cheap peerless 18s on PE also look good (one is lower motor force higher excursion, other is similar motor force similar excursion)
I'm finding that motor force correlated with sensitivity and xmax are telling. The PA460 has two of the three. It gets expensive fast to get all three.
it's not as expensive as you might think, neo is pretty expensive, but ferrite slugs are cheap as hell
I've been looking around without much success. Any ringers you can think of that are better than the cheap stuff but also maintain a good price / performance?
I have a large and highly efficient three way design in mine.
Buy it on Walmart. It’s $159 with free shipping.
i wouldn't pay 120 for it
Are supply chains that fucked?
It was not so long ago that $10 at Taco Bell would provide so much food that it would be positively irresponsible for one person to eat all of it, or plenty for two people.
It isn't that way at all anymore.
(tl;dr, things are fucked. get used to it. prices for other things will also adjust -- they just haven't, yet.)
honestly the supply chain comment was rhetorical and a joke about how so many manufacturers justify their massive price increases by saying vaguely "supply chain". The PA460 used to be sold for under $100. The material cost for that woofer I guarantee is not more than $100 and they're probably making a 100% profit off of it.
That excuse is getting old fast. The cost to produce a gallon of gas has not risen, but the cost at the pump rises a shit ton, we're getting ripped off
You're right, the effort required to produce a gallon of gas remains the same. But the value of the currency you have in your wallet, that you use to compensate those producers for their effort, HAS changed. When the government prints new money, the value of each dollar you already hold goes down, it takes more of them to reward the same effort. Industries most tied to international currency exchanges, feel this first. But eventually everyone will feel it.
TLDR: the government has been printing money with wild abandon and making every dollar worth less.
It's partly everything you say, and partly everything else.
Labor is expensive. A fuckton of boomers decided to just down-right retire during the pandemic.
A fuckton of people with kids decided that they're better off raising a family with 1 income (and not paying a babysitter) than 2 incomes.
A fuckton of people changed jobs, got remote'd at their job, moved houses, and mixed things up for the rest of us: We aren't all spending where we were two years ago, even if we are working.
And that's not even considering the oft-unspoken talking points about how supply chains were stretched thin before 2022, with no surplus for many common things at all:
Did we all forget that toilet paper was nonexistant two years ago?
Did we all forget the #10 cans of corn and sweet peas displayed in the center aisle of Kroger for almost no money, because food service companies weren't buying them?
Yes: The government (every government) gave away a lot of money. But things have also changed. It doesn't really matter if any of us like it or not: Things are different now than they were 3 years ago.
(Relatedly: A C-Note kit, which I always suspected was sold and delivered at a loss as a means to get people into the hobby, now costs more than a C-note [$100].)
(Relatedly: Good luck buying a Raspberry Pi or a new video card today. Or a new CPU for a desktop computer. You can do it, but it's expensive: Kind of like a PA460-8 is expensive.)
(Relatedly: Eggs are up x3 or so. Beef is stupid expensive. A PA460-8 is also stupid-expensive. shrug.
Do we even know where this loudspeaker driver is made?)
It's not an excuse, but an observation: Everything is up.
Gasoline is up more than some other things, but prices are up across the board.
I bought 4 of these for VBSS subs a couple years ago. I believe they used to be 90 dollars and with the usual PE mailer coupons they were closer to 70/ea after all said and done. I'd be interested in upgrading to Odeum drivers if they are really that much better, haha. Seems like my investment with PA460's is about to pay off big.
what would be your goal with an upgrade? the odeums don't look insanely better, just better price to performance compared to the PA460's current price. neither of those drivers are something I would personally choose for price to performance though. just comparing daytons catalog to itself
Everything's gotten fuckin expensive. Even chinese made speakers. I paid like $85 for four of them a few years ago. Still a great speaker
it's an ok speaker, it'd be great if it had double the xmax
I've noticed pricing for some items on Parts Express has gone down, if it really was a money grab i wouldn't expect them to lower anything. It seems to me that the effects of outsourcing all manufacturing outside of the US is going to really hurt consumers throughout the next year or so, not to mention tarrifs haven't been lifted on a lot of what they import.
Edit: Looks like they're listening in on our conversations, the whole PA line just dropped like 20%!!!
Of course it is, look at international money markets, the yan gained significant value when Africa and many small governments in the Pacific Rim decide to use china currency as the world standard instead the the dollar , especially in countries with oil. Will it last? USA based companies always use world wide currency fluctuation as permanent price increases. This has been a normal part of America since the 1950s
It is very simple. Look at all the products that are sourced in China, since the communist government decided to digest American dollars, band certain production and export to America, prices have skyrocket. The HBT100 hybrid tube pre amp/amp raised from $165.00 to $214.00. after talking to several long time employees, Parts Express is looking to source their products elsewhere. But so is everyone else. At this point they are lucky that they can keep the product in stock. MCM used to be fantastic for drivers, when they merged, many of the d cent drivers with were discontinued or prices shot up drastically. Again all Chinese imports , JBL is not making anything in America, neither is Klipsch, (maybe putting products together with forgiven parts,but American drivers are done) we will be at the mercy of forgien country's currency, or strength of currency.
lol, all of the speakers, even the cheap but equivalent alternatives, are also made in china, this isn't a china issue
It used to be much much cheaper; I think the price increases have been driven (ha) mostly by a huge increase in demand ever since the PA460-8 was used in the VBSS, a really popular design. It's ironic and sad that the "Value Busting Sub System" has made the driver so expensive.
They had them on sale for 75 a piece a couple years ago and i was going to order 8 of them. Kind of sad i didnt buy them now