Why is Dynaudio so much cheaper in Europe?

With imported components, it has more to do with the middle men than the dealers and manufacturers, really...but the manufacturer sets the initial price, and the dealer can sell at whatever price he or she wants really. Anyway, I personally am not painting manufacturers any which way in particular, most of them are good people with good intentions; however, however, when you start deducting things with some products, what's left? Big profits, or big-ger profits, and let's be honest, the prices, the markup, on high end audio is more than ever. I'm not an economist or anything like that, but something's wrong with this picture, in my opinion. I'm not trying to be Ralph Nader Jr. here, but the consumer is not bring treated fairly, especially when you consider the resale value of most high end equipment. But, that's the way it is, and i am in no way trying to expose the industry, because after all, without the industry, what would we buy? We would have to DIY, of course, which many are doing as a matter of fact.
Of course no one's forcing anyone to buying high end audio, you can just go to best buy and buy a $100 receiver and $200 speakers, plus $50 blue ray player and be done until the units crap out. But when you want the best, it's never cheap, or gonna be cheap, but unfortunately, this shuts a lot of people out who want and appreciate this stuff.

Hi Dave 72

Thanks mate.

Personally I don't think it's greed or anything like that most of the time. In some cases like with distributors who simply sit there and rake off the cream - yes. But in most cases its simply what needs to be done to make a low volume expensive product. Not many are made, and you need people to spend time and money marketing them so they are known eg send them to magazines for review and buy into all that rot which I wont go into here. Then retailers need to stock them so you can hear them. It all adds HUGELY to the cost so you can actually make enough profit on the measly few you sell so you can stay in business. Then there are makers who don't buy into that model - its all by word of mouth and you hear them by going over to fellow enthusiasts places, not to dealers because they sell direct. It's MUCH MUCH cheaper that way but no one knows about them and you only occasionally see them discussed on forums like this.

Thanks
Bill

Hi Phantom 46

The markups are not obscene - its just what you need to do with the usual model for selling a specialty product. If you do what Magico does marketing wise and selling via retailers its perfectly normal and no one is ripping anyone off or anything like that. Buying a product sold direct is much cheaper, but you wont find them in magazines like Sterophile or at your local Hi Fi store. That's what you are paying for. That's what makes me barf - the massive overhead you pay for the usual way of doing business and why I steer way clear of products like that. I think most people, if they understood the truth would as well - but most people don't.

And its very interesting to see peoples reaction when its pointed out. One guy on the forum I frequent in Australia always goes off the deep end whenever I mention it - you are ignoring being able to buy in bulk bla bla. The fact of the matter is speakers like the Magico and other really high end products are made in such minuscule quantities all these things you would think a big maker could save money on and pass on are non existent. Their major cost is marketing and retailer overheads.

Thanks
Bill

Hi Bill,

No problem. Well, since you put it that way, I would agree. Perhaps I'm being too pessimistic here. The gloom and doom man, haha. I know very well, that this is a business, and making money is part and parcel of the whole thing. That is true (low volume) especially for the top of the line and near the top units. Thanks for your post, it allowed me to see things in a different light.

Dynaudio stopped caring about the customer when they became a large corporate company. Having used there roar drivers since their beginning I recommended them to many people over the years. Then one day when my home made sub-woofers surround started to rot I called them up to find out how to get it re coned. They told me that because it was not from a speaker system they made but was sold as a roar driver they will not repair it!. As for charging more for the same in the USA it's simply because they can.