I love how everything is English except for “CD Speler.” 
1 Like
If you translate everything then you shall increase the price, the idea was to remain under 26.000 € 
1 Like
Anyone have an idea of the new U.S. prices? I assume they went up here too.
I assume they will now be ‘live’ on retailers’ websites, because they have come into effect here (UK). I looked at the website of my local dealer, and one other: comparing to my notes of last year’s prices all the Vivaldi components have had £1000 added to them. (I couldn’t say anything about the Vivaldi One.) Also, the Rossini transport seems to be £1500 more than before. I haven’t checked the other Rossini boxes, or the Bartok.
Yikes.
My local dealer told me for Vivaldi:
DAC - $38,000
Upsampler - $24,500
Clock - $17,500
The Rossini clock seems to have gone up to £7999.00 from £6600.00 
.
Please remember that any increase imposed by dCS itself is multiplied by how it affects distributors’ and retailers’ margins and local taxes. The rule of thumb is that the factory gate price increases fivefold by the time it gets to you. So dCS add 200 currency units but you pay 1000.
1 Like
There was a £600 price increase for the Rossini clock last July and now a £1400 increase this year! I’m not saying that a price increase is not warranted (due to the world situation) but some people may think that this is excessive.
2 Likes
This is totally ludicrous, a dcs dealer just told me today that in February 2022 they’re going to revise the electronics inside the dacs and the Rossini will now be at almost $34,000. Yes I love my music, but I’m not going to feed into extortion. I’ll go with another brand when I’m ready to get a new DAC
1 Like
Salman, hello and welcome to the community forum.
I understand your concern but it really is premature to be concerned about a rumour or speculation. Wait until you know from dCS exactly what, if anything, is going to happen. In case you have not noticed there is a world shortage in microchips and other resources. This is seriously affecting almost all industries. Prices have escalated significantly. If the forecast you have is in anyway correct the new price will be due to the world situation and prices and nothing to do with any form of rip-off.
You will find that all other brands will reflect similar if proportional price increases over the next months.
1 Like
Spot on Pete. In fact, Xilinx, the main FPGA supplier to dCS platforms, announced a 20% increase for their chips effective 1st November 2021.
When you couple that with manufacturers hoarding a year’s worth of supply or more of these chips, that price increase accumulates across the entire supply chain. Plus, there are massive shipping costs increase world wide.
So, a net increase of 30% for boutique electronics like dCS is completely within the realm of possible.
I know, the situation is absolutely ridiculous, but is unlikely to change until new silicon foundries’s come online at the end of ’22/early ’23, if that.
Agree with the commentary above. The only problem is, here in the States, these price increases have started to take their toll on retail sales and consumer spending. December numbers showed a DECREASE in sales indicating purchasers are starting to tighten their wallets in light of increased prices. Even the affluent will reach a point where they will start to forgo purchases - not necessarily as a metric of affordability but rather on principal. In addition to high end stereo equipment (which dCS definitely is a part of) my other vice is high end designer clothing. I am starting to get disgusted with the price increases strictly as a matter of principal and not my ability to pay. At a certain price point a divorce starts to take place between the asking price and inherent value of a product.
dCS is not alone. There was a MASSIVE thread on the Naim forum responding to the new round of price increases. Quite a number of long time members indicated their intention to begin looking outside the brand.
Just my 2 cents on the matter.
3 Likes
No I’m sorry I don’t agree. There have been two massive price hikes of DCS products and I have compared them with other manufacturers and there’s a huge difference. The price performance ratio or the value of the product has gone down considerably as far as I’m concerned and I’ll be investing elsewhere
What do you not agree with? Are you saying that there has not been a huge increase in costs to manufacturers ?
That there isn’t a world shortage in components leading to increased prices?
Or is it that you do not agree that shipping costs have risen?
Manufacturers have these basic choices:
-
Absorb the increases. That is possible with small ones but the size of the numbers relating to the above currently ( +11.4% in shipping costs for electrical goods alone) would likely bust the company.
-
Cease to make products. dCS have already had to do that with one line, Network Bridge. However they obviously could not continue by making no products.
-
Cheapen the products. Not a viable proposition if you are in the luxury end of any market. Your brand loses its whole point. Nobody is going to buy a Patek Phillipe with a quartz movement or a Vivaldi in a cardboard case.
-
Increase product prices to counter increased costs. This will depend upon elasticity of demand for the product and success is therefore not guaranteed.
I have not so far mentioned the huge increases in energy costs here in Europe ( where dCS are of course). So great have they been that a major aluminium smelter here n the UK had to shut down production as gas costs now exceeded what they could sell the product for.
And what material is dCS casework made out of let alone the increased costs to power the factory ( and those of its suppliers)?
Unfortunately the dCS management team , along with many others, are faced with very difficult choices. I wish them well even though I may now have been priced out of the future market - I doubt that I will have any choice on this.
As the increased costs have to affect all manufacturers in the audio manufacturing world all will have to choose amongst the above options . It is not possible to avoid this. So when you do come to buy your next audio product it too will have gone up, be unavailable or suddenly have plastic rather than aluminium knobs and come in a thin folded steel case rather than one made from aluminium panels. At the time of writing the increases have not yet worked through for all manufacturers and for all products but they surely will over the next few months. Sadly there may be casualties where companies choose the wrong strategy.
3 Likes
I don’t know whether or not it is viable but they could sell in direct, increasing their profit and decreasing the price for the customer…
Like Tesla in a way…
Forgive me for being a bit pedantic but do you you mean sell in or selling? The former usually means the transaction between distributor and retailer rather than direct to customer.
Of course dCs did indeed handle their own distribution in the UK until a few years ago and, AFAIK, and still do in the USA via dCS Americas.
Direct selling to customers is really only possible in the manufacturer’s home country for all sorts of reasons. So, for example, I understand that PS Audio is now sold direct in the USA but remains with independent distributors elsewhere. Of course, like dCS, a subsidiary company could be set up in each territory of sale but , broadly, the cost of this absorbs the savings. Tesla does this in the UK with the attendant cost of running dedicated stores ( 27 of them). Further equipment in the price bracket of dCS is not likely to be sold without demonstration and that adds another complexity to direct sale to consumer.
Still, maybe something along those lines could be attempted?
dCS could sell direct, but I don’t believe it would be worth their while. It opens a lot of other issues. And if they reduced their prices they would anger their dealers.
Tesla is a different model. Yes, they sell direct online (I bought one–easiest car purchase ever!), but as Pete says there’s a lot of local infrastructure to support the brand.
But it can be done. I recently ordered two components direct from manufacturers internationally. A pair of Meze Elite headphones from Romania, shipped via DHL and here in the US within just a few days. And an Enleum AMP-23r, built in South Korea, but they do have a partner in the US that serves as a sort of hub through which their amps are shipping within the us (I believe the partner is actually one of the product designers and owners).
I will say this though: I would like the option to buy most any audio component online without having to visit a dealer. I basically did this with my Bartok, but through email and a phone call to the local dealer. When it arrived they called and I picked it up.
Maybe dCS should start thinking outside the box by reducing the number of “boxes” required for a full set-up. The “rumors” are the next iteration will be four boxes sans transport. There are other manufacturers who are grouped in the same high end sandbox as dCS where you can get by with just DAC and Clock or DAC and power supply. I am sure dCS believes that it is necessary to obtain the best SQ, but then other world class suppliers will provide reasons why it is not necessary. Sure would save on the BOM and the end users power cord expenses.
1 Like
Yes, I am in favour of this. It is not just the additional cost of the number of chassis involved on the current top-of-line structure but he amount of racking space it takes up.
Of course Vivaldi is now 9 years old and the architecture reflects its predecessors Elgar and Scarlatti. I hope that further technical developments might allow for some reduction in size. No doubt we shall see in due course.
2 Likes
It looks like the new upgraded series of dCS equipment has the suffix Apex: