The Lexus was a way of tapping into a luxury-item market, Nuage isn’t. Nuage is about utility.
But again A) it’s about utility. Nobody in their right mind would buy Nuendo if it wasn’t for the extra features it provides. On the other hand why would I care that there’s a cheaper car when I want and can afford a Lexus?
B) the ratio between Cubase and Nuendo is interesting. Using Sweetwater’s numbers Cubase is 550, and Nuendo is 1800, NEK is 400. So we’re looking at Cubase essentially being one fourth of what Nuendo+NEK is. That makes sense. And “lemix” brought up the Avid s3/s6. There we’re looking at about 20%. Now apply that to a Nuage 16-channel fader unit at about 12,000 and you end up with $2,400-3,000.
I never said they couldn’t produce a similar line, but comparing SSL’s lineup to Steinberg’s is apples and oranges. The Duality and the Matrix are both analog consoles with DAW control on top of it. In a sense a Matrix is a better value considering what you’re getting (assuming you can make do with HUI), and the leap down to a 5k Nucleus thus makes sense, again at a fifth of the price.
The best way to illustrate my point is probably to ask the question:
In your opinion - what can you subtract from the 16 fader Nuage controller to get to $5,000 or less?
(And if you add anything to the Nuage unit then the price goes up)
And, in yet another way of phrasing it:
If you add up all you want to see in a $5,000 Nuage controller, what functionality is left out and does it justify the extra $7,000 to get the “full” Nuage?