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Revel - Big Price Increase

AdamG

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Let’s move away from the Third/Second World conversation. It’s boarder line Politics and we do not permit political type conversations. Any further posts on this subject will be deleted and poster will be issued a Warning.
 

q3cpma

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Let’s move away from the Third/Second World conversation. It’s boarder line Politics and we do not permit political type conversations. Any further posts on this subject will be deleted and poster will be issued a Warning.
Is that just the concept that's "not okay"? Because my point isn't about third world or whatever, but how much it may costs them to build.
 

AdamG

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It’s about the Labeling a Country Second or Third World. It is insulting to the Citizens of these countries and we have members from all over the globe here. So just stick to using country names and stop using labels that may be interpreted as negative.

Please and thank you.
 

Ron Texas

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There's inflation all over the place, not just in audio gear. The pandemic made a mess out of supply chains. Let's face it, if you have $22k for a pair of speakers, you have $24k. I'm expecting black Friday deals to be disappointing as well.
 

DonH56

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Harman had not raised prices in a very long time (I think over ten years?) So a 10% increase, while vexing, is not a large increase in my mind. Especially when I look at how the prices of so many other things has skyrocketed, and look at the cost of doing business these days. I see over and over again the assertion that companies are simply taking advantage of the pandemic to gouge consumers, and yet behind the scenes read and talk with businesses (not just ours) that have been severely hit by the spike in costs, temporary or not (my gut feel is most think they will fall over the next year or two but not back to pre-pandemic levels). A lot of businesses have dropped well into the red and just hoping to last out the pandemic. And of course we all read tales of the large number of businesses that are closed now. But I've no MBA, just read and hear tidbits from various sources, and certainly have no interest in some big global cost debate (not competent anyway, just a hairy-knuckled low-brow engineer).
 
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Haint

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Too tired and buzzed to document details, but noticed significant price increases across the board for Revel speakers today. Totally changes the decision making process for me.

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
It doesn't change the decision process for most people, many products are consistently selling for 2x or 3x markup before they even make it to shelves, many new cars are being sold at $5k to $20k+ over sticker 3-6 months in advance, and almost every commodity is up 20-30% yet stores and restaurants are packed beyond capacity. There is clearly plenty of money and plenty of demand to go around, a price increase will bizarrely probably increase their unit sales in the current economy as people race to head off future increases.
 
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blueone

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The pandemic is a good excuse. The windfall effect is more likely.

A 10% increase in the price of multi-thousand dollar speakers is a windfall? I don't know what fractions of Revel revenue and gross margin are in the context of overall Harman revenue and profit (not to mention to Samsung's), Harman isn't a public company anymore, but Revel speakers must be only a small fraction of Harman's sales. We also don't know how much of the increase goes to Harman versus how much was added to or subtracted from dealer margins. Most likely, given supply chain issues and shipping cost increases and delays, I'd bet Harman's net profit is going down for 2021 (and probably into 2022); I find it difficult to believe Harman is experiencing a financial windfall for any Revel products.
 
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Frgirard

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It's not when the economy returns to the normal, the sale price will increase.
It's the good moment to use the pricing power.
 

JSmith

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It is insulting to the Citizens of these countries
Indeed it is and completely unnecessary to the discussion topic. In a global world, it is irrelevant anyway, as what matters is parts used, design, build quality, measurements etc. and not country of origin. Once that type of discussion starts, how far then do you go, as internal parts may be made in various places... the materials used may be made in various places, the raw materials would be mined in various places etc.

Revel is a well known brand that make quality speakers, but myself, I find one can obtain better value from smaller, lesser known speaker manufacturers that have less overheads.



JSmith
 

jonfitch

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It seems pretty tame considering retail price gouging for semiconductors going on right now…I was shopping for a new video card and see the AMD 6800xt, a $649 msrp product, is shipped and sold by Amazon for $1699. I think it’s time to pray nothing breaks that you currently own…
 
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Yuhasz01

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:D Right! :D

Some of our "leaders" in Washington are saying inflation will be "transitory". Meantime they are trying to pass pass multi-trillion dollar spending bills and cranking-up the money-printing machines. They don't understand economics...

Even if you believe them, I think "transitory" means the high-inflation rate would be temporary and then normal-slower inflation will resume. They aren't predicting deflation...

They think printing/creating money creates wealth but I always say, "If you give everybody in town a million dollars, how much do you think the plumber is going to charge?" There's also a great line at the end of The Jerk where Steve Martin is going broke and his wife says, "I don't care about the money, I care about the stuff!"
What the hell with the political rate on an audio science forum! Go some where else with the politics….
 

theyellowspecial

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It seems pretty tame considering retail price gouging for semiconductors going on right now…I was shopping for a new video card and see the AMD 6800xt, a $649 morph product, is shipped and sold by Amazon for $1699. I think it’s time to pray nothing breaks that you currently own…
I purchased a 3060 Ti bundle to get HDMI 2.1 for 4k 120Hz movies (madvr does a better job than LG oled at 5:5 pulldown). Sold the mobo and cpu from the bundle, and also my RTX 2070 Super on eBay. Ended up $100 in the green because my 2070 Super sold for $900 CA.
 

Zvu

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Revel increased the price of virtually everything. Don't forget that Revel F208 costed 5000$/pair and its successor Revel F228be costs 10.000$/pair.

If that's not a price increase, i don't know what is. Compare that behaviour to Kef R11 price in regard to Kef R900 or LS50Meta to LS50.
 

Helicopter

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Revel increased the price of virtually everything. Don't forget that Revel F208 costed 5000$/pair and its successor Revel F228be costs 10.000$/pair.

If that's not a price increase, i don't know what is. Compare that behaviour to Kef R11 price in regard to Kef R900 or LS50Meta to LS50.
Revel PerformaBe is a class above Performa3. PerformaBe has the white coating on the drivers, Beryllium tweeters, fancier cabinet finishes, and better performance.
 

Zvu

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Revel PerformaBe is a class above Performa3. PerformaBe has the white coating on the drivers, Beryllium tweeters, fancier cabinet finishes, and better performance.

No, it is not - and i have measurements to prove it.



Revel Performa 228Be actually has higher distortion and more resonances in the passband. I wouldn't call it anything above F208. Perhaps slightly bellow would be appropriate.
 

Helicopter

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No, it is not - and i have measurements to prove it.



Revel Performa 228Be actually has higher distortion and more resonances in the passband. I wouldn't call it anything above F208. Perhaps slightly bellow would be appropriate.
I was thinking product placement and marketing strategy. Perhaps I am wrong about the performance part though.
 

Zvu

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If we say that coating needs to be done (black or white, who cares - i like black better) and performance is similar/equal...

They've adopted 100% price increase for fancier finish and worse performing Be dome tweeter (mounted in a better waveguide, truth to be told) ?

Makes no sense to me. This 10% increase is because they can :)

It doesn't influence me in any way since i never intended to buy any of the Revel speakers, but it is rude of them to do it and use Covid crisis as an excuse.
 

Koeitje

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Similar price hikes are seen in Europe as well. The cause is a combination of pent up consumer demand, an unexpectedly successful economic recovery in many countries (Dutch GDP e.g. is back at pre Covid levels), reduced production capacity (many manufacturers scaled down production in the expectation of a Covid slump that did not materialize) and higher energy and transport costs.
The generous money supply policy of many central banks (in highly divergent political contexts) has kept us out of a depression, but surely needs to be scaled back now (although not too much). It will be a challenging tightrope act.
European prices for Revel were already insane, basically MSRP for everything.
 

thewas

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European prices for Revel were already insane, basically MSRP for everything.
Harman distribution in Europe (except cheap BT loudspeakers and headphones) is a big mess since decades which is a big shame...
 
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