Most economic forecasters are estimating that the causes behind the factors driving these increases ( raw materials, chip shortage, shipping costs) will be resolved during 2023. However it is extremely difficult for manufacturers such as dCS to then reverse price increases as such a move undermines the investment made by their customers earlier which , in turn, can damage their reputation. Difficult decisions.
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They must believe there’s enough demand at the higher prices. The new Bartok price being the same price as a current Rossini, at least in Japan, is a big jump.
In USD that’s going from $17,250 to $26k. With headphone amp! That’s a 66% increase.
Can’t be right.
No it can’t. For Yen expressed in USD values Bartok + ( inc.headphone amp) in Japan increases from $25592 to $31839. That is circa 24%.
Of course you cannot apply increases found in other countries to your home country. The price may increase uniformly at the factory gate but is then distorted country to country as the local distributor sets his own margin thereon.
Apex generation models could very well have the hardware updates justifying the increased cost. In my case I think I have a very good system but not the very very good system that can benefit. I’ll go old school Rossini and add a clock as soon as I get the next round of upgrade shakes. Would like some time to appreciate the upgrade to Rossini and get the gift of another bump with the clock down the road. No rush on clock - they’re not going up as much I believe.
So I’m thinking about stacking my preamp control unit directly on the Rossini on some stillpoints. Should give the Rossini extra weight and maybe some reduced vibration. Do you guys think this proximity will add interference? Running out of space after I reorganize my front end.
Btw there are several Napa cabs that were priced at 45$ and didn’t sell - they raised them to 95$ and they went on allocation……
It is only a week until February when ( or thereabouts) any changes to Rossini should, according to the speculation, become public. So have patience for a few days.
As for :
If there is a , speculative , new model “Apex” Rossini then order the “old school” one tomorrow ( if your dealer will accept it). The current world supply situation implies that dCS may likely be making it at a loss prior to the rumoured price increase. Should the “Apex” model replace it then almost certainly thereon there will be only be one Rossini version and no choice to buy an earlier iteration other than by finding used or ex-demo dealer stock. Otherwise wait until February to find out what the true situation is.
If you can in any way avoid stacking Rossini components then do. The problem is not related to vibration ( with which Stillpoints are concerned) but with electromagnetic interference or coupling given e.g. the magnetic fields of the transformers.
Here is France, the Bartok is now 18600 € (without the headphone amp), the Rossini is 29000 €. Personally, I find these price hikes unacceptable and bordering on the fraudulent. No other electronics company has increased their prices by such a considerable margin.
I was considering upgrading to the Rossini, but when I consider that I bought the Bartok for 14000 € and will now have to pay double for the Rossini, this upgrade won’t happen. 28000 € for a DAC represents a psychological threshold that I will not cross.
I also find it sad to note that dCS seems to be intent on catering only to the truly wealthy among the audiophile crowd. Their products are fast becoming a fashion statement for a certain socio-economic class. Their products have always been somewhat exclusive, but this is becoming ridiculous. I may only be talking for myself, though.
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I have sympathy with your opinion. I am certainly now seemingly priced out of a future with them. This all seems a big a risk for dCS as the success of such increases rely, in part, on inelastic demand. But there are lots of competitors now playing in a field once solely occupied by dCS.
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For whatever it’s worth I lobbed in a call to my dealer a few days ago on maybe trying to lock down a pre-increase Rossini up from my current Bartok+HP and they held me off.
I’m keeping an open mind - my hope in terms of value is that new Rossini in fact does get closer to the Vivaldi SQ such that the dollar increase represents “sound value” other than just cost increase passthroughs. I’d be more open to consider the upgrade if that’s the case, otherwise I’d have to take a closer look at others (despite being very happy with the dCS ecosystem). The other way I am looking at it is that the increase probably means me just moving from Bartok to Rossini without a clock for the time being - I would have more closely considered both previously.
At the same time, maybe these new models pave the way for a Bartok 2.0 update for us existing owners!
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Before the price increase, a Rossini + clock was 30000 €, now it’s almost 40000 €! As I’ve said before, I don’t know how dCS can justify such an enormous hike.
I bought the Bartok less than two months ago, and at the time I was very tempted to get the Rossini. But as I wanted to upgrade my amp as well, I went with the Bartok. The idea was that I would later upgrade to the Rossini, which won’t happen now, as I find myself effectively priced out of this upgrade path.
I wonder if this is a sound business decision. I went to a demo of dCS products because I was wondering whether the sound could possibly justify such a high price tag. And I ended up buying the Bartok. With the new prices, I wouldn’t have gone to the demo in the first place.
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My take on this is that either the price increase is justified by a better sound quality, compatible with the upgrade price they will ask for, and in that case I’ll take it into consideration (I am assuming that there will be an upgrade path, anything different would be suicidal);
OR, there is no (or very limited) SQ improvement, and in that case we will know that it was just a price increase, and I will be happy with my Rossini-without-an-Apex. (No: I will be HAPPIER and congratulate myself for the wise choice four months ago).
Just as if some competitor came out with a new product in that class: does it sound better? Is the price difference justifiable? Then go for it, otherwise …
Subjectivism is a great defensive strategy.
A.
It might be a way to throttle demand?
I pay good money for good audio gear, but not crazy money. There are a lot of other things in life to enjoy too. Thankfully, I’m really happy with the Bartok!
The perceived lack of the Bartok with headphone amp is curious. That was definitely a gateway product for dCS and got a lot of exposure and coverage. And they even developed Expanse for it. I may have purchased the Bartok without it, but it was definitely a factor in buying it when I did.
I bought my Vivaldi dac 28.000 euros…two years ago…Now a Rossini at the same price, it is indeed ridiculous, even though the Rossini includes a streamer 
I have just been reminded of something that i wrote back in July and which should be borne in mind when you contemplate these price increases:
So a 1,000 currency unit increase made by dCS becomes circa 5,000 units by the time it reaches the consumer. One thing we do know is that for Europeans ( including the UK) 18-24% of that increase is demanded by the government.
And let me revisit my initial post from 2 weeks ago.
My BartokHA was purchased for my stand alone headphone systems at $15k. I was impressed with it’s performance (gateway drug) enough to go for a Rossini+Clock at $33k which took it’s place in my Naim 500 system and relegated my $24k Linn Klimax DS to the headphones.
The new Linn Organik DS took a massive jump from $24k to $39k. The Rossini+Clock will most likely jump to $50k. I can afford these pieces if I want however, at a certain point, one simply will say BASTA - enough is enough. Full totl systems (pre/amp or super integrated, speakers, turntable or digital) can be had for the same price.
In my 25 years of high end I have been rather unimpressed with the quality of dealers here in the States. That is why my dealer is in the UK (not for dCS). With everyone buying online during Covid maybe it’s time for a direct to consumer model to ameliorate these exorbitant increases. Otherwise… let’s see how demand plays out???
Stock market funny money seems to be disappearing.
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There may also have been a bump in demand during the pandemic while people were at home a lot and bought new gear (I did). But… they may not need new gear for a while now and they may be back out in the world more and spending less on stuff like audio gear. Higher prices may just drive that home even more. I’m spending my $ on vacations this year and a home remodel.
But it’s hard to imagine companies dCS don’t recognize the pandemic bumps in demand as short-term bumps. I highly doubt they’d bet the future on it.
Or maybe their raw material costs have gone up so much they can’t sell products and make money at the current prices. But that has to be a catch 22.
And let’s keep in mind that a sizable percentage of that price increase goes to the dealer. Good for them. Good for us?
Many wealthy people have had their stock portfolios appreciate at 25% for several years. There are plenty of dollars available to buy stuff at ever increasing prices.
Seems to me there was a sweet spot for buying around 2019/2020. Vivaldi had been out for quite some time, the hype was long gone and street prices (at least in HK) were very reasonable. Dealers had stock on hand! My Vivaldi was on my rack a couple days after I made payment.
For those of us that already own our dCS equipment I guess the price increases aren’t all bad. It will help maintain the second hand market value of our units if we ever decide to sell!
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Very unpleasant news! And I was about to buy Vivaldi clock. So I’m going to buy an AQ Firebird cable instead. Everything has its price. It seems to me that Dcs has decided to pass all the costs on to its customers. This could be detrimental to business. The question is how this price increase is planned. Totally opaque. None of the customers are aware of anything. Everyone has their own plans. You save up to buy their product, come in to order, but overnight it goes up 25% and you turn around and go home sad. It’s just like a bride from church running off to an unknown destination and you stand… like a fool. I get the feeling that I am a cow who is only meant to be milked. I don’t think it’s nice to do that. They have the right to raise the price by 100%, but there has to be information about it. Customers should have the right to predict their purchases. Perhaps what I have written is not very courteous, I apologise, but I think so. And I have already made arrangements with my wife to buy. Sadly…