It interests me that much of what is made here is discounted as not being good enough or not delivering value.
So what exactly is the real value of SA manufactured audio?
To try answer this I'll give two examples.
Sonor Audio Claro 6.2 loudspeakers sell in Europe for 4 995 Euro.
When they were reviewed (reviews on the sonor website) they were given extremely high praise and their price/performance ratio was rated as excellent.
In case you didn't know, Sonor are locally made. They decided to import a pair, excluding any shipping costs, clearing costs and duties, but including customs VAT, the speakers would land at just under R 100 000.00. Include other costs and the speakers would probably land at closer to 120K.
At this price and based on their reviews, they would compete head to head with imported brands that sell here in that region.
The local price of the Sonors is a little over R 52K or less than half the price of the speakers against which it competed favourably in Europe.
They are in fact too cheap in the local market.
The Second example is the Xact turntable from Reference Acoustics. This is a 2500 Euro turntable.
If one were to import one from Europe and pay shipping, duties, VAT etc, the turntable would land at around the R 60K mark.
The retail price here, depending on cart is in the region of R 30K.
These are products that have international acclaim and are value proposition options in their respective categories in the EU.
Here, at half the price, they are often discounted as not good enough.
I have to ask if some supposed Audiophiles are far more interested in how much they spend and a European or American brand, than actual performance?
If it costs more its better, right??
So what exactly is the real value of SA manufactured audio?
To try answer this I'll give two examples.
Sonor Audio Claro 6.2 loudspeakers sell in Europe for 4 995 Euro.
When they were reviewed (reviews on the sonor website) they were given extremely high praise and their price/performance ratio was rated as excellent.
In case you didn't know, Sonor are locally made. They decided to import a pair, excluding any shipping costs, clearing costs and duties, but including customs VAT, the speakers would land at just under R 100 000.00. Include other costs and the speakers would probably land at closer to 120K.
At this price and based on their reviews, they would compete head to head with imported brands that sell here in that region.
The local price of the Sonors is a little over R 52K or less than half the price of the speakers against which it competed favourably in Europe.
They are in fact too cheap in the local market.
The Second example is the Xact turntable from Reference Acoustics. This is a 2500 Euro turntable.
If one were to import one from Europe and pay shipping, duties, VAT etc, the turntable would land at around the R 60K mark.
The retail price here, depending on cart is in the region of R 30K.
These are products that have international acclaim and are value proposition options in their respective categories in the EU.
Here, at half the price, they are often discounted as not good enough.
I have to ask if some supposed Audiophiles are far more interested in how much they spend and a European or American brand, than actual performance?
If it costs more its better, right??
