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Comment by jrm4 | Hacker News Reader

I love people making little things like this and so one hates to throw rocks from the sidelines.

But I literally laughed out loud, HARD, at the price.

That's pretty much what I would expect from Chase Bliss. They make very cool, high quality, and often niche audio products. Small production runs made in North America come with a high price tag.

I'm not saying that you've clearly never built and shipped a hardware device as a small team in North America; maybe you have, and maybe that's what you do all day.

However, I have noticed that the only people who look at a product like Chompi and think "overpriced" are people who have never built and shipped a hardware device. Perhaps you'll be the one to prove me wrong.

I'm not saying that Chompi wasn't expensive, or that you couldn't get a mass-produced device like a Roland SP-404 for less on Reverb. I am saying that that is not a fair comparison, however.

Oh, I never have. I'm speaking truly as a consumer. I do not doubt your numbers.

But -- your response really gives me a "what were they thinking?" vibe. Like, I have multiple raspberry pis and a flipper zero etc.

And just coming from a consumer of stuff like this POV -- I could MAYBE go as high as 300-350, and that's really pushing it.

I don't understand the second line/paragraph of your reply. Could you please clarify?

I suppose my thinking was that they were going to try to sell this to -- maybe not even the general public -- but to someone like me, pretty well versed in tech but not ultra deep in the game, that price point is still waaaay too high.

Perhaps I'm missing it and it's almost a sort of, no really we're just building this for ourselves?

unfortunately that's the cost of supporting small businesses, no one can really compete with competitors who benefit from scale pricing

afaik they sold out and then never made more. I was trying to buy one for my kids.

Add to cart still works: https://www.chasebliss.com/shop/p/chompi-sampler

Oh cool, I haven't checked on it in quite a long time.

I ended up getting them a Dato Duo, which we enjoy quite a bit. Got that for $229, price on it is way up now. Been eyeing the Dato Drum, but it's pretty steep at $500.

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