Ayre QB 9

[Mick3]

Just asked about the price of an Ayre QB-9 dac from their Australian importer. $4400 Aus!! That's about $4295 US. Current US retail for the QB 9 is about $2500. The Aussie dollar is trading about one for one with its US counterpart.

 

Strangely Wavelength gear costs about the same here as it does in the States. Does each Ayre unit get its own seat on the plane?

 

Sadly that new dac won't be an Ayre. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh here, but it seems a hell of a mark up. Wavelength it is.

 

[RKL_76]

...has an impact?

 

I live in Northern Europe and the Ayre prices are quite reasonable (accounting for logistics, customs and far higher VAT/sales tax than the US)...

 

I´d assume the price of air freight from the US to Northern Europe is approx. the same as to Australia.

 

Given this (please note the entirely subjective assumption) it seems like the markup is at the receiving end of the supply chain rather than at the sender´s end..

 

Br,

 

RKL

 

[iWonder]

Just another reason why Australian audiophiles are importing their gear direct themselves. Australian distributors are nothing more than greedy rip off merchants. Don't forget that the USA retail price already includes the retailers profit margin. If retailers buy their products at wholesale prices, is it not reasonable to assume that Australian importers also buy at wholesale prices which if the same as US wholesale pricing, makes you wonder how they can justify such exhorbitant pricing? My advice - check out the Wyred 4 Sound dacs with 24/192 asynchronous USB - exceptional product and half the price of the Ayre and DeepHz Audio is the Australian distributor so you can check them out first and pricing is in line with US pricing!

 

[Mick3]

Hi RKL. It is of course a long way to ship goods from the US to Australia and we have 10% GST, much like VAT. However, Wavelength products sold in Aus appear comparable in price to the States.

 

An example is their USB-Spdif unit. $900 US over there, $1000 here.

 

The Ayre mark up, as iWonder suggests, is just pure greed. Are they really telling me it costs $1700 US, per unit, on top of retail, NOT wholesale, to import to Australia. Ayre will wonder why their Aussie sales are zero.

 

I'll take iWonder's advice and shop around.

 

Thanks for the opinions though. Nice to see a different view.