Chord DAC64

I dunno - but Love Over Gold is easily the best sounding CD I own - and that's the original 1983 stamper'd version -not the remaster...

Now if only Simply Vinyl had sent me a decent copy on vinyl - £17 for a copy with 4 load crunches and a fart on Telegraph Road (pressing abnormality I assume) isn't my idea of audiophile pressing - although if you listen to the music aside from that, it sounds astonishingly good - even on that lowly NAD 533 I use in Reading

 

DAX Discrete

Hi Dean

I assume that you weren't using the ASL on the Discrete. I understand that performance improves significantly when you do. I can't comment myself since I haven't heard the Discrete without the ASL. All I do know is that I loved the sound it made at last year's Heathrow show - and that was with just the modded 747i. David Heaton assures me that for red-book only, an ASL'd P30 or Transcend Decade will be hard to beat.

I'm curious about the prices you quoted. Are they RRP?

reg

 

Cheers Tone, may have found one cheaper and closer to home

What duties etc are there from Europe ??

 

If it's in the EU, none. Outside the EU, there may be some duty to pay - look for it

here

The site is very arcane. Search by TARIC code and make sure that you have reached the bottom of your TARIC tree - otherwise, it won't come up with a duty rate.

This site is useful - it ought to go into an FAQ. Michael?...


reg

 

I've used that site before - it's very arcane indeed. Just findind the right TARIC code can take ages.

A general rule of thumb is that pretty much everything has duty at around 4% (sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more). There are few wild exceptions. Some items are 0 rated (including, oddly enough, digital cameras ). Items with a duty much higher than 4% are either things that the EU is currently having a trade war with the US about or certain industrial items that no consumer is going to be buying (and of course tobacco and alcohol etc).

You do of course have to add VAT at 17.5% on top of the duty.

I don't know if you have to pay duty and/or VAT on second hand items.

Useful to put in a FAQ somewhere (allthough slightly obscure for a hifi forum!) but I'm not sure where...

Michael.

 

Hi Michael,

I tend not to bother with phase as I don't notice much of a difference. as cds may be in or out of phase, it can be hit or miss. The thing is you can get various bits of equipment that phase inverts.

Dom

I understand that Simply Vinyl pressing ain't really audiophile. Some may be pressed on heavy vinyl but a lot depends on the quality of the master used. I have heard mixed opinions of the sound quality of some of the records they sell. (The would compared to original pressings).

Hi Anopax,

I didn't use the ASL input on the Dax Discrete as my transport doesn't support this. This should push the performance up a notch. It is something I would like to try at a later date. Maybe I can have a look at this at the London HiFi show in September.

The prices are correct I think. That what my dealer quoted.


SCIDB

 

Jeff pretty simple 3.5-4% (import tax) max within europe (EU), and if the vat is higher than 17.5% THAN you CAN CLAIM A REFUND, however it's takes ages & mucho form's as the HM Customs and excise don't like paying out
Also remeber there are a whole host of mods check to see if the Plus model, and does it has the MSB link, that you will need to have fitted to the transport.
Reg are you finaly spending some cash wow decided on your amp as well, did you get your other half to flog a couple of horses then? Tone

 

Hi Tony - you've imported a lot more gear than I have, but I thought that the whole point of a customs union (the EU) is that there aren't any internal tariff barriers...

I should be so lucky. I've been working up in Edinburgh for 5 months and still can't find a reasonably priced house to buy. The market up here is mad with locals bidding up prices in an orgy of greed (latest stats show a 19% yoy rise for Q2)

But I have been promised the mother of all upgrades once the house has been bought and we can count the pennies left over from getting another (yes, another) gee gee. I'll even be allowed to set up a separate AV system in a dedicated HC room.


Thanks Dean - I may well see you in September then, checking out the ASL. The reason I queried the prices was that the RRP had been set somewhat higher at the original launch. However, I know that there is a significant dealer margin on these things so perhaps your dealer is sharing some of that with you.

reg

 

Reg, I must have a word with Customs over that cable I got form Switzland then no vat barriers (unless it's different from the UK 17.5%).
Cheapest price for the fully loaded Discrete (all toys 240v) inc. shipping and vat is £5268 delivered all in (retail) I found on the net last night, BTW reg your pretty close on the dealer margins there I feel .
Man I'm surprised that you aint go a house yet, when The good lady and I went to James at the beginnning of the year, we were so surprised at how cheap stuff was and a decent sized property too, far better than down here

 

Last time I (and tones, and titian) looked, Switz was NOT a member of the EU :newbie: , so duty applies.

 

This may may explain it Graham.

 

FWIW, Swiss VAT is 7.5%, or thereabouts. This presumably would be deducted from the price of the item bought in Switzerland, but the UK VAT level would be levied on the item.

 

Ah, yes. The Glasgow market. What I wouldn't give to work in Glasgow. The property is much cheaper than Edinburgh and the weegies (yes, that's what the denizens of Glasgow are affectionately known as) have a much greater choice of places in which to live, ranging from rolling Ayrshire countryside in the south to the Trossachs National Park and the delights of Loch Lomond to the north.

We had found somewhere near Edinburgh but were pipped to the post by another couple in this stupid blind auction system that the Scots have. The Scots are so proud of their property system but it stinks. The contract law is good (no gazumping) but the way in which houses are sold is very opaque and unnecessarily inefficient (read costly). Unfortunately, a small industry of self-serving bottom feeders has built up a series of dubious marketing practices which have no basis in law and which no single individual has any power to change. AAAArrrrrrgghhhh

Rant Over;

anyway - when I finally get round to purchasing my kit, ZG will be the first to know...

reg

 

Oh well - this thread has now gone totally off topic but it had pretty much exhausted it's original purpose so let it roll....

ANOpax - surely no property purchase "system" (if it's even worthy of that name) could be worse than the English one?

I always thought the Scottish one was much better but have no personal experience of it. Sealed bids seems like a much fairer system. In the English system you end up paying for the survey, solictors fees etc and then a day before the deal is done - "sorry mate, someone else has come up with a better offer - see ya!" :inferno: Load up the bank account for the next round of fees At the very least the seller should be obliged to pay for an independent solicitors search and survey which lenders would have to accept (ie: not force the buyer to do it themselves anyway). That way it only has to be done once for each property.

Not to mention dubious practices such as agents and/or sellers coming up with bogus "rival offers" just to up the ante.

In Portugal the basic system is pretty good aswell (let's ignore all the corruption and back-handers for now ): you make a written offer - if it's accepted then that deal and price is legally binding provided the whole deal is done within 3 months. The seller can't accept another offer and the buyer can't back out unless they demonstrably can't get the money or something.

Michael.

 

Michael

You are right about the English system on many counts. But I was careful to distinguish between the contract law itself and the selling system in use.

Scots contract law is very good. Once the offer is made and accepted, the contract is not binding, but is very difficult to wriggle out of. It becomes binding after the 'conclusion of missives' which is when the solicitors have checked title and ironed out any anomalies to give you a firm contract.

It's getting to this stage that's the problem. It begins with the ridiculous 'offers over' system in which properties are marketed for sale with an 'offers over' price (known as the 'upset price'). This used to be a reasonable guide to what the property was worth and the 'heat' in the market could be gauged by the premium that was offered in excess of the upset price. 10%-20% used to be the norm and in central Edinburgh, a 30%-40% premium was not uncommon.

We now have a situation where agents are marketing properties at a price 35% below their actual worth which leads to people thinking that they can afford the house based on the 'offers over' price+20% when the reality is that they'll need to pay the upset price+45%. This wastes the vendor's time (they conduct the viewings, not the agents) and the purchasers' time since the prospective purchasers can't, in reality, afford the house.

It gets worse. If the interested purchasers want to proceed, they have to submit their sealed bid. But because the bid is legally binding, they would be wise to have the house surveyed before putting the bid in. Therefore, if you have 5 interested purchasers, there will be 5 'homebuyer' or 'valuation' surveys undertaken at a cost of £600-£800 apiece. Only then, will the buyers discover that the property is out of their reach. Even if they can afford it, 4 out of those 5 interested parties will be £800 out of pocket. It adds up when you've gone for, and lost, a auctions.

And then there's the closed shop of people who know people etc. and the fact that the winner of an auction may often have been tipped off as to what they should bid in order to secure the sale.

In a selling system as highly secretive and opaque as the Scottish one, there will always be abuses.

The Scots don't always sell through auction and will quite often reach a mutually convenient price without going to sealed bids. Having been on the sharp end of some dubious practices, we've thrown our toys out of the pram and are seeking to deal outside the auction system if at all possible.

reg