Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-08-01 23:40
"What can be the explanation for this?"
One explanation:
Envision the pool of all E11's to sit on a range of quality from 1 - 8.
Envision the pool of all R13's to sit on a range of quality from 2 - 10.
Clearly, there's overlap there. There numbers may be off, but the principle isn't. And you may be experiencing some of this quality overlap phenomenon.
Many of us would say that we don't think the R13 a great instrument so much as we think certain R13's of the entire pool, maybe many, but by no means all, to be great, particularly ones produced during the Golden Era cited below.
Also, your clarinet's dimensions may have shifted slightly since purchase.
It is well accepted fact, Francios Kloc of Buffet won't deny, that R13s produced during the Golden Era (I'll loosely say late 50's to mid 70's for others to correct) contain the wood only found in higher Buffet models today.
(We've argued to the end of time how materials affect sound--but if lesser quality wood correlates with cracking or dimension change susceptibility, this can't be good.)
Mr. Monie covered the technical explanation (if not the detail thereof), so rather than rehash, I'll provide the marketing one: even if I've probably said it in quite a few posts.
Product manufacturers provide various levels of product for one reason and one reason only: profit. This isn't a sin, in fact, the outcome of this is more choice for the consumer--which economists see as a good thing (the recent discussions on the flood of clarinet gear notwithstanding.)
Ray, if I may be so bold, maybe you might have purchased the Tosca rather than the R13 if money were no objective.
Conversely, maybe you would have purchased nothing, at least new, from Buffet if the Tosca was its only product offering.
Buffet, like all commercial outfits, wants to sell the Tosca to those capable of buying it at the profitable price, and less expensive models to those who can only afford Buffet's profitable price for these models. It's called "capturing the market," across various ranges of the consumer's pocket size.
Slightly OT, envision the market for some new basketball sneaker endorsed by a top NBA player. It's likely to sell for a King's Ransom when first released, but say 2 years later, when other newer models have dethroned it, the maker is glad to sell it for less, albeit still at a (less) profitable price, to capture the market with time, (in addition to the above example of product differentiation) in the above example.
Ever see an infomercial product sell, years after introduction, for a fraction of the initial price?....: capturing the market with time.
Now, by no means am I claiming, say, the Tosca and R13 to be the same thing in quality. But I will claim that their quality is probably a lot closer than their price.
So too, me thinks, the E11 and your R13. (Disclaimer: I play a Golden Era R13.)
There are many product offerings, particularly technical ones, that are clearly segmented with greater correlation of price and quality. Some are desingned better, with better materials, tested more rigorously and have longer lives (MTBF http://tinyurl.com/yatevycu ) and [more comprehensive] warranties.
I'm not sure, as long as clarinets are made of wood, that they can be an example of one.
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