Are you buying now because you anticipate higher prices?

[PristineSound]

Honestly just curious and in no way meant to be negative, but wondering what makes you think Arendals are superior to Ascend Acoustics ELXs?

Don't quote me, I believe the older Arendals were OEM designed by Dan Roemer, CEO of Perlisten. If that is true, of course Arendals are great speakers and the spin on them collaborates with this.

The measurements of the Ascend are also superb, with the exception of their vertical directivity, it's a mess. I believe, part of the reason is that they don't use waveguides and to the best of my knowledge they have never used waveguides in any of their speakers. I don't know if that's because they don't have expertise in waveguides (FEM/FEA, geometry, etc) or they believe they can achieve superior design without waveguide.

They also have a custom OEM tweeter by SEAS, which is a really great tweeter, very wide dispersion. If they can somehow incorporate that tweeter in a waveguide, I think they would give a lot of other speaker companies a lot of competition.

For full transparency, I have owed a pair of Ascend bookshelf and have since upgraded to a pair of their towers.

 

[drewdawg999]

So I bought the FiiO Jade KA13 at $63 on Amazon, days before the FiiO price hike, it's now $84. Whew, I love the little bugger but over 80 bucks is pushing it, don't think I'd pull the trigger for that much. And I got the Tangzu x HBB Xuan Nv IEM which previously had an $8 coupon which is now gone. Also Sonicfoam memory foam tips have gone up a buck but I need them so I bought another 10 pairs, which is the package they come in, no big whup. Currently waiting on delivery of my final purchase (at least until Christmas time), it's the ISN H20 IEM, sold by Penon Audio which is located in Hongkong. It's traveled through China, starting in Guangdong, then Fujian province, caught a flight to New York where it cleared customs. Somehow no tariff, shipped through YunExpress, maybe that has something to do with it. Slow going, should make it to LA in a couple days, but I can be patient and will be happy to have bought it for advertised retail price.

 

[RichB]

Honestly just curious and in no way meant to be negative, but wondering what makes you think Arendals are superior to Ascend Acoustics ELXs?

I am not familiar with the Ascend products.
If Revel doubles the price, then the Arendel 1528 series would cost less then most of the Be line and I don't think they compare.

These look very good that include:

- Great Build Quality
- Very good bass response
- In line with BE towers.
- Not sure about vertical response though, they were not measured.

1528 Series

arendalsound.com

The towers aren't pretty like my Salon2s, but I'd love to hear them, since I think they would be incredible.

- Rich

 

[JustJones]

I noticed a pair of Genelec 8361A increased $900. No idea if that's due to tariffs or just a price increase that's been in the works.

 

[2Sunny]

I promise this will be my last off topic post here. Although the fact that my Revel F226s have jumped so much in price is part of this discussion since I may very well sell them on the used market if I do opt to try something new now. Anyways . . .

@RichB You definitely have rekindled my interest in Arendal, and I have seen the online raves for Arendal, but my view of Ascend Acoustics comes primarily from two sources. First, there is this post:

I compared the original Ascend RAAL towers directly to the F226Bes in my setup, and then later the F226Bes to the upgraded ELX RAAL towers over the course of several months. All of the more "critical" comparisons were done with the speakers setup in an ABAB configuration and with a reasonable effort made to level-match. My listening was always done sighted.

I preferred the F226Bes to the original Ascend towers overall and they became my primary speakers for a time. With most music tracks, I maintained a preference for the high-end of the Ascends, but just about everything from the lower treble and below I felt was more coherent, balanced, dynamic, and "punchy" with the Revels. There was more of a wash if not an occasional advantage for the Sierras in lower bass frequencies, likely due to some beneficial room gain provided by the rear ports of the Ascends.

After upgrading to the ELX towers, I easily preferred the Ascends to the Revels in nearly everything I listened to. To my ears, the ELXs solved virtually every shortcoming of the original speakers. In my opinion, the only remaining sonic advantage of the F226Bes is that they have a significantly larger vertical window. This means that when standing up from a seated position, the Revels have very little discernable treble drop-off. With the more constrained vertical dispersion of the ribbons, there's an obvious high-frequency attenuation when standing up (all is well when seated). Beyond that, I personally have nothing but high praise for the tonality and overall performance of the ELXs. I agree with the OP in that these provide that goosebump-inducing high-end demo experience, but without the juiced-up and ultimately fatiguing treble that often accompanies the showroom sound.

and then second when I look at Spinorama data it would appear the Ascend Acoustics are slightly better in terms of bass response and high end, but like I said you definitely have me rethinking which speaker I should try next Not to mention they aren't showing any price increase yet.

P.S. I definitely have TV envy. 83"!! Holy giant TV Batman!!

 

[Mort]

I noticed a pair of Genelec 8361A increased $900. No idea if that's due to tariffs or just a price increase that's been in the works.

Yes, the whole lineup increased.

Model New Old
8331a $5200 4900
8341a $6700 6200
8351b $9200 8400
8361a $10900 10000

 

[Doenerkunde]

I've found the "legacy manufacturers DIY drivers" to have disproportionately increased in price compared to the speaker market as a whole. In 2010, when I first got interested in the topic, the Seas TFF27 was well below 30€. Now it's at 60€. The Seas CA18RLY was at 60€. Now it's at 120€.

 

[knownothing]

So after the temporary adjustment down of U.S. tariffs on China was put in place, a $98.00 product I am interested in buying now has a $10.14 “Estimated sales tax” and $36.78 “Estimated import charges”, and shipping is now $24.35. That is 72% in additional charges.

I include the shipping charge to make a point because a similar but slightly larger product I ordered from the same vender only days before the tariff war started that listed for $102 had a shipping charge of only $13.68, and no other fees or taxes. Total cost on PayPal was $115.68. Once the 145% tariffs hit, the vender said that they could not deliver the product for the paid price and refunded my money.

I can afford the 72% of added costs, but it irritates me immensely, and I can’t bring myself to order it. A 5V r core power supply is a boutique low-volume product, and I doubt very seriously that any U.S. manufacturer is going jump on it. And if the did it would sell for three times as much as the tariff inflated price, at least.

Choice in the market place is going to suffer. I saw this day coming 20 years ago when everything in Target was made in China. It is unsustainable. Whether the rip the bandage off approach is helpful in the long run and to whom it will be helpful remains to be seen.

As for my purchasing habits, I think I will just buy some used speakers instead.

 

[amper42]

So after the temporary adjustment down of U.S. tariffs on China was put in place, a $98.00 product I am interested in buying now has a $10.14 “Estimated sales tax” and $36.78 “Estimated import charges”, and shipping is now $24.35. That is 72% in additional charges.

I include the shipping charge to make a point because a similar but slightly larger product I ordered from the same vender only days before the tariff war started that listed for $102 had a shipping charge of only $13.68, and no other fees or taxes. Total cost on PayPal was $115.68. Once the 145% tariffs hit, the vender said that they could not deliver the product for the paid price and refunded my money.

I can afford the 72% of added costs, but it irritates me immensely, and I can’t bring myself to order it. A 5V r core power supply is a boutique low-volume product, and I doubt very seriously that any U.S. manufacturer is going jump on it. And if the did it would sell for three times as much as the tariff inflated price, at least.

Choice in the market place is going to suffer. I saw this day coming 20 years ago when everything in Target was made in China. It is unsustainable. Whether the rip the bandage off approach is helpful in the long run and to whom it will be helpful remains to be seen.

As for my purchasing habits, I think I will just buy some used speakers instead.

Tariff insanity won't last forever.
I'm staying with goods I can get without tariffs and spending much less. I'll save a bit this year.
With US Debt downgrade and increasing debt coming in the new budget interest rates are rising so we might even get paid a bit more to save.

Once calmer heads prevail trade will return to normal..
Until then, resist the temptation and the tax gouging that comes with it.

 

[JeffS7444]

From the world of photography, I'm seeing a trend towards "one world, one price". I first became aware of it via Leica Camera, which standardized prices for USA and Canada. And this morning, I noticed the same trend with Fujifilm's new X-Half camera. I imagine the hope is that in the USA, buyers won't delay purchases in hopes of reduced tariffs in the future. And for everyone else, by baking in USA tariffs at a product's launch, there's no basis for price comparison.

To date, aside from orders for electronic components, I have not been knowingly affected by higher prices. But what I'm seeing instead is fewer vendors offering a reduced selection of products, mostly the lower- and middle-grade stuff.

I'm tempted to do a bit more shopping from pre-tariff USA inventories, but there's not a lot that I actually need, and for that matter, if not for the threat of shortages and higher future prices, I might have indefinitely postponed or simply forgotten about some of them.

 

[Waxx]

That is why more and more the EU does not want to trade with the US anymore. I hear it more and more that companies don't sell in the US anymore as they don't know what the tarrif of the day is... It's not the rate that is the biggest problem, but the unpredictability of the rates.

Trade runs on predictions, i can sell this for that price and have so much profit. If you can't predict the costs of the sales (inclusive taxes), you can't do business because you can't predict your profit, it's that simple. And a tax of 25% is a lot cheaper for Apple than producing in the US, so US citizen will just see a price raise. Even a 100% tax won't be more expensive than producing in the US.

 

[Chr1]

Very understandable as it will cost companies to continuously have to be reassessing the implications and costs/profit margins involved. Updating systems etc.
Just another unnecessary layer of complexity and cost. Probably easier to simply cease sales there until some kind of stability returns.
Not great, if a big part of your market however.

 

[Audionaut]

The comments would have greater heft if all countries tariffs were on the table, not just the US.

I think you can write about all tariffs of all countries if you want.
The topic is:
Are you buying now because you anticipate higher prices?

The USA tariffs are probably written about the most because they change very often.
Sometimes several times a week.

 

[RichB]

I think you can write about all tariffs of all countries if you want.
The topic is:
Are you buying now because you anticipate higher prices?

The USA tariffs are probably written about the most because they change very often.
Sometimes several times a week.

I bought 2 LG G5s TVs, 2 Topping D90 III Discrete DACs, upgraded my Emotiva RMC to an RMC+ when the opportunity presented.
There is a 90 day windows with China, so I plan to also by a Topping D900, looks like a killer product.
It's basic thinking here. Do I want or need something, is it priced within reason (tariffs or not), can I afford it...

If tariffs push up the price and that is not acceptable, wait it out, that is my advice.

- Rich

 

[Waxx]

If tariffs push up the price and that is not acceptable, wait it out, that is my advice.

That is probally the safest. Because this situation can't keep going on for long. The US economy will suffer that much that the sponsors of the actual gouverment will turn against it, and so will the population. Because it has a reverse effect, it does not boost the economy, it hurts, both in the US and the rest of the world. But the US citizen will feel it the most i think.

I don't really need something from the US at this moment, i'm a bad consumer that only buys when he really needs something (except music). I got already 4 quiet good setups in my house so... And if i would buy something, it would be more an extra Minidsp, that is not coming from the US.

 

[Groove01]

That is why more and more the EU does not want to trade with the US anymore. I hear it more and more that companies don't sell in the US anymore as they don't know what the tarrif of the day is... It's not the rate that is the biggest problem, but the unpredictability of the rates.

Trade runs on predictions, i can sell this for that price and have so much profit. If you can't predict the costs of the sales (inclusive taxes), you can't do business because you can't predict your profit, it's that simple. And a tax of 25% is a lot cheaper for Apple than producing in the US, so US citizen will just see a price raise. Even a 100% tax won't be more expensive than producing in the US.

Except the manufacturers don’t pay tariffs the importer does.

 

[amper42]

Except the manufacturers don’t pay tariffs the importer does.

Actually, that's not true. For instance, look at Buckeye recent price hike. All because he received additional tariff costs on parts to build amps. There are costs at every step and level. It's not as plain and clear as one might believe. Tariffs are like a virus. They show up everywhere and spread unchecked. When product is delivered for review - unexpected tariffs. They show up as manufacturer's buy parts and tools. They show up all along the supply chain and within repair facilities trying to maintain existing product.

 

[amper42]

History may repeat or rhyme every 100 years?

 

[Noske]

Actually, that's not true. For instance, look at Buckeye recent price hike. All because he received additional tariff costs on parts to build amps. There are costs at every step and level. It's not as plain and clear as one might believe. Tariffs are like a virus. They show up everywhere and spread unchecked. When product is delivered for review - unexpected tariffs. They show up as manufacturer's buy parts and tools. They show up all along the supply chain and within repair facilities trying to maintain existing product.

Buckeye produces amps in the USA. Buckeye may use components subject to the tariffs.

All USA producers who rely on imported components are in a similar position.

I was referring to manufacturers domiciled outside of the USA where USA tariffs cannot directly touch them.

 

[Waxx]

That is why i think the US economy will suffer a lot more than the others. We only have a problem when we trade with the US, where our customers will see an increase in price. While US products may have a tarrif to as response, so become less competitive on our markets, and so looses sales in favour of products that don't have that tarrif (so from elsewhere). And parts will be harder to source as a lot is made outside the US so cost more due to the tarrifs.