AsciLab speakers are about to launch

[ry_]

Previously it was to contact @amirm through PM. I’m still waiting on details though

 

[amirm]

Is the waitlist thread in the Tested Audio forum the right place to reserve one of the incoming F6Bs for the US?

No. Please start a conversation with me and let me know the color.

 

[amirm]

Previously it was to contact @amirm through PM. I’m still waiting on details though

Once I have confirmation of delivery from local trucking company, I will start notifying people on waiting list. I am told this is this week but I don't want to count on it.

 

[amirm]

To be honest, I've seen the same type of scenario repeat on many products from new companies who need to balance hype and sustainable growth.

That's what i thought but the issues i believe go beyond that unfortunately.

 

[Grimoire]

That's what i thought but the issues i believe go beyond that unfortunately.

Oh dear, that sounds ominous.

 

[kharan]

That's what i thought but the issues i believe go beyond that unfortunately.

I wish you and Ascilab the best and hope everything can be sorted out, clear communication in all things is essential.

 

[somebodyelse]

I could go for another brand or model, but that wouldn't be smart—for me, it’s AsciLab or nothing.

You could have a look at the Audio First Fidelia. Erin reviewed it shortly before the C6B, and notes at the end of the C6B review that "Both are exceptional and close in performance" - and the price is similar. You would need to assemble it yourself, but you would at least have a speaker with very similar performance.
https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/audio_first_fidelia/
https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/ascilab_c6b/
https://audiofirstdesigns.uk/fidelia

 

[AsciLab]

It looks a lot has been discussed.


We sincerely apologize, but recently we have been dealing with an extremely high production demand, and all of our staff—regardless of their usual roles—have been assigned to production. We ask for your understanding that it is difficult for us to respond to every question at this time.

We would like to share only a few key points:

1. Audiophonics is responsible for the European Union region. If you are geographically in Europe but not part of the European Union, you may still purchase directly from us in your region. (We hope the moderator understands that this is simply an answer to a question, not an attempt to solicit commercial sales.)
   For countries where we have an authorized dealer, you cannot select that region on our website. In other words, purchases in those regions are only available through the local dealer.
2. In Korea, a subwoofer is currently being prepared, but it will be a separate product and not system-integrated with our speaker lineup. We do have ideas for a system that could be integrated in the future, but it is too early to disclose details. We will share more when the time is right.
3. Although it has not even been a full year since we began global sales, we are grateful to be experiencing tremendous growth. However, not all of our partners and suppliers move according to our schedule, so we are facing a supply shortage that cannot keep up with the rapidly increasing demand—and these gaps are lasting several months each time.

We believe this is an issue that will be resolved over time once a stable supply and production plan is established.

For now, however, we must focus all our efforts on securing parts and manufacturing to meet immediate demand. The only thing we can say is that we are doing our absolute best.

As a young company, we believe we have strong products, but we recognize that we are still causing inconvenience on the service side. We will continue working to improve and address these shortcomings over time.

Thank you always for your support. We will do our best to stabilize our supply and operations as soon as possible.

 

[amirm]

For now, however, we must focus all our efforts on securing parts and manufacturing to meet immediate demand. The only thing we can say is that we are doing our absolute best.

For your local market, sure. For US market, nothing remotely like that is happening. No products after initial shipment which we placed orders for in Summer of last year! While you had stock to sell direct last week, you told me there is none to ship to US. I literally had customers order direct from you with shipping to US. My fingers have broken in how many times I have had to tell our customers that a) we have no stock to sell and b) have no idea or confidence when we will get any.

Go to your store right now and there is big banner saying every product comes with "Shipping Worldwide."

You think that indicates that you value your distribution network?

Even requests for review samples, with me being willing to pay for them, have seemingly been lost. There has been zero outreach from you to sell products for US market. Heads up on product announcements. Coordination for launches and discount plans. Etc.

Now, if you were receptive to feedback and coaching, that would be one thing. But responses I have received from you indicate anything but. Both the tone and content have been severely disappointing.

As your representative in US, you do not have our backs. We are left to fend for ourselves, with no ability to service our customers. Yet you notify me last week that want to get into new markets. And when I tell you to be cautious and be prepared to do what it takes to be successful in pro market, you scuff at my suggestions.

Our case is a lost one at this point. For what it is worth though, I highly recommend that you decide how serious you are going to be in servicing overseas customers. You should also bring in a mentor from the industry on helping you figure out how to do all of this. Failing this, go back to selling direct and don't put your distribution in such awkward position and with it, damage your reputation.

 

[CtheArgie]

For your local market, sure. For US market, nothing remotely like that is happening. No products after initial shipment which we placed orders for in Summer of last year! While you had stock to sell direct last week, you told me there is none to ship to US. I literally had customers order direct from you with shipping to US. My fingers have broken in how many times I have had to tell our customers that a) we have no stock to sell and b) have no idea or confidence when we will get any.

Go to your store right now and there is big banner saying every product comes with "Shipping Worldwide."
View attachment 508761

You think that indicates that you value your distribution network?

Even requests for review samples, with me being willing to pay for them, have seemingly been lost. There has been zero outreach from you to sell products for US market. Heads up on product announcements. Coordination for launches and discount plans. Etc.

Now, if you were receptive to feedback and coaching, that would be one thing. But responses I have received from you indicate anything but. Both the tone and content have been severely disappointing.

As your representative in US, you do not have our backs. We are left to fend for ourselves, with no ability to service our customers. Yet you notify me last week that want to get into new markets. And when I tell you to be cautious and be prepared to do what it takes to be successful in pro market, you scuff at my suggestions.

Our case is a lost one at this point. For what it is worth though, I highly recommend that you decide how serious you are going to be in servicing overseas customers. You should also bring in a mentor from the industry on helping you figure out how to do all of this. Failing this, go back to selling direct and don't put your distribution in such awkward position and with it, damage your reputation.

What is thus happening with our orders? We already paid…

 

[amirm]

What is thus happening with our orders? We already paid…

They say they are building them and I have prepaid for them when I placed the order. I am trying to get better status from them and details of shipping. The answers are not as forthcoming as I like. I have communicated to them that if this is not sorted out properly, I would refund the orders as I don't want the experience I have had with C6B/F6B shipments repeated. As they say, once bitten....

So please don't worry. I am here 100% to make sure no one is hurt in this situation. You have me to hold accountable.

 

[AsciLab]

Amir, I don’t think it’s appropriate to unilaterally disclose matters we are currently discussing between us in a public forum, as it can easily lead to misunderstandings.

We are reviewing your last email internally and will respond once our discussion is complete. For now, we are focusing all of our efforts on production.

As I have mentioned before, we are doing everything we can to meet all of the requested demand.


Thank you.

 

[kharan]

Hi, I know it's not the best moment to ask and you are probably quite busy at the moment, but if you could find the time to upload the Klippel data for your most recent speakers to Spinorama.org, that would be awesome. Thanks.

 

[pastnpending]

apologies if this has been addressed (here or elsewhere), but what do you recommend using to power a pair of F6B? I'm based in the US, and would also like to have a system with which I can connect a turntable, projector, and bluetooth streaming like a wiim pro.

currently looking at fosi audio v3 monoblocks...

 

[amirm]

As I have mentioned before, we are doing everything we can to meet all of the requested demand.

Demand that we have helped create...

So there is no confusion, while lack of production capacity is a problem, it is not what has gotten us here. You are making day to day decisions that clearly disfavor us in this country as your customers and representatives. Even when I brought this up multiples times with you this weekend, your responses kept reinforcing the problem instead of addressing them. Your last email to me was so out of line that I can't even begin to comprehend.

Even on demand side, you had advance notice of our desire to move large number of speakers as far back as June of last year, with a $100K container as our initial order (96 pairs?). If this far out in the future you still don't know how to satisfy demand in fair and proper manner, it is not something I am willing to make excuses for with our customers. Hence the reason I am being transparent with them.

 

[ObscuredByClouds]

Well. Was just looking into these as probably making a speaker change for my office system later this upcoming summer. Guess I will be watching how this goes over the next few months to see if I have to scratch them off due to stock issues.

 

[pat355]

This thread has suddenly taken a very concerning turn... certainly not anyone of us expected. I wanted to order C6Bs as surrounds, I will now see how this all plays out just like the other person above.

 

[AsciLab]

To @amirm


As explained above, we are experiencing growing pains due to faster-than-expected growth. We are a young company that has only recently started, and it is not yet easy for us to scale up quickly. As we have mentioned repeatedly, even securing the necessary volume of components takes several months each time.

We understand that these realities can place a heavy burden on you as a dealer, especially when you must manage expectations and communicate with your customers. While we recognize how difficult that can be, we also hope it is understood that these constraints are part of the current stage of our business and were not unknown factors at the time we began our cooperation.

Regarding your statement that we “mocked” your advice about the pro-audio business: we did not intend any disrespect. We simply meant that we are not comparable to large, long-established companies such as Genelec, Neumann, or JBL, and that we view relatively small boutique companies as our more relevant peers. If our wording caused you to feel otherwise, we would like to clarify that it was not meant as ridicule.

You also mentioned that we are not supporting you. To be clear, we apply the same terms and rules to all dealers. There are no special privileges and no unfavorable conditions applied to any particular dealer. All orders are processed in sequence, and dealer orders are prioritized within our available inventory.

We believe these matters are best resolved directly between you and us through our dealer–manufacturer communication. If any parts of this situation have been shared publicly, we would respectfully ask that we keep further discussion focused on private channels so that we can address the issues more constructively and avoid unnecessary fatigue or misunderstanding among readers.

In our limited and challenging circumstances, the only thing we can emphasize is that we are making every effort to meet demand and improve the situation.

Finally, we apologize to readers for any inconvenience or fatigue caused by matters that should ideally be resolved within our direct communication.

Our CEO is currently very busy, so I am responding on his behalf.

Thank you.

AsciLab | CTO
Jinsung Ko

 

[amirm]

What we meant was simply that we view relatively small boutique companies as our comparable peers.

And with it, missed my point again.

What I explained to you is that when someone is using your speakers for business, i.e. their livelihood depends on it, you cannot treat them like hi-fi customers. If speakers they are using breaks down, you cannot expect them to wait until a remote part is shipped from Korea to them while their mix/mastering suite is down. Or worse yet, having to wait for an entire speaker to be shipped to US. I explained that you at least need to have a pair of speakers locally in the country, if not parts as well before you engage this market You scuffed that this, saying parts have to come from Korea and that is that. And that because these are "boutique" companies, I don't know what I am talking about. Same as what you are repeating here again.

I know that market. I know it very well. I serve them now through ASR and have worked for small and big companies serving Pro video and audio markets. If you listen to what we need to do, we can hit the ground running any time. I will bring you the customers. But you have to listen to what it takes to be successful there, and provide superb level of pre and post sales.

You have multiple balls in the air. You have no stock across any of your models. This is the worst possible time to go and chase other markets. We have plenty of consumers willing to buy your active products. The problem is not demand. It is your ability to produce them, and fill the channel with them.

I was just told that I have to pay $510 to get C8Cs shipped from Korea to here. Are you serious? How am I supposed to absorb this margin hit after I have already priced and sold these products? Why not listen to me when I say we can't announce new products without proper time and opportunity to work together to fill the channel?

If you are short of resources as a small company, you need to focus. You decide what is important and get that done excellently. Don't chase new dreams, constantly announcing things you can't produce. Or worse yet, try to open new markets when you say you can't keep up with the demand you already have.

I have said nothing earth shattering to you. Any other company would have agreed that we needed to work much better together. Instead, your CEOs responses have been very defiant. I have tried private communications. And repeatedly so. Trying this method now to see if i can get through to you or give up.

 

[Mort]

However, not all of our partners and suppliers move according to our schedule, so we are facing a supply shortage that cannot keep up with the rapidly increasing demand—and these gaps are lasting several months each time.

The way this is written, it sounds like a serious problem. Several months each time is a lot, right?