Value for money

I have had an experience in the last few days that has left me wondering about the mark ups and pricing policy of British hifi.

I have been looking for a efficent pair of floorstanding speakers for about 1k ish and was looking to the S/H market to try and get the best value for money. I then spoke to a well known Kent dealer who had a pair of speakers from the States that were reduced from 2.7k to .9k and so off I went for a listen.

They were broken (blown bass driver) so I asked for alternatives, you might like these he said pointing at a very fetching pair of speakers sitting in the back corners of the dem room. I thought they looked dear and said so, 900 quid he said...ex dem..US price is $1899.00 I later discovered.

I had a listen and was impressed, very impressed so much so that today I picked them up.

Audes Jazz made in Estonia by some ex military outfit.

I have been playing music for the last few hours and frankly I'm baffled, they look great, really well put together and I like the styling a lot, material value is astonishing in fact. (custom bass/mid drivers SEAS tweeters, huge well made boxes beautiful side panels, cardas cables and posts, good quality xover bits)

The sound is just WOW I have had many pairs of speakers here recently from Proacs to 3/5as, Klipsch, Monitor Audios, Spendors and a few others but these things leave them for dust.

Not perfect but for 900 quid I have heard nothing to compare which begs a simple question how come stuff built here without all the export taxes shipping etc costs so much when these guys can build, export and sell these things for so little.

I know wages are less in Estonia but bottom line for me is that if Eastern Europe can do it and the Far East can too (Like Norh) why do we so readily get stiched up by our homegrown manufacturers.

One final point, I have decided that I am not prepared to say bye bye bass in my quest for musical sound, the music I like has loads and these speakers have tight deep bass aplently something our homegrown manufacturers seem to regard as a bonus you pay 3k for.

I am not suggesting these speakers are the best solution for everyone but I am rethinking my views of value for money and diminishing returns.

Rant over

that is all.....

 

Congratulations on the speaker purchase Joolsburger. Here's wishing you many hours of musical enjoyment.

I don't think that we do get stitched up by our homegrown manufacturers, by and large. Look at Tag Maclaren; would they be withdrawing from the high end market to concentrate on AV if they could make profit from it?

You state the answer above. Wages are less in Estonia and that's something you can't just gloss over. Even the price of raw materials has a significant labour component. I can almost guarantee that wages are so much less that the price of Estonian speakers are less affordable to the average Estonian than the price of equivalent British speakers to the average Brit.

As for me ... I'm off to speak to manufacturing companies in Poland as soon as I can get it together.

 

NIce find Jools.

It is very true what you say, and in todays climate of outsourcing i imagine that it wouldnt be long untill some brit company takes on those speakers and bangs the price up.
profit profit profit!
Thats all they want, sod value for money and customer satisfaction. If theres a market (IE people will pay) then they will continue. Its not just the HiFi market, its all over. The company i work for (a well nown IT company) have outsourced most products to eastern europe now. That way it is way way cheaper to produce the product, but these saveings are never passed to the customer

 

I think the technical term is "capitalism", and everyone does it. The bottom line is all, nothing else matters, except "improving shareholder value", i.e., making as big a profit as possible. Baronness Thatcher would have approved, and probably still does. I don't agree with it, but that's today's commercial reality and it won't change any time soon.