It‘s not the aluminum, it‘s the chip! Global shortage rises prices all over. I bought a car in April last year !! and it‘s still not delivered because a chip is missing. IT companies take many chips with long term commitments, they are the preferred customers. Hifi manufacturers, cars companies etc. which don‘t take thousands of it are left behind. My guess- within the next month every hifi company will rise prices (or did already so)
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Changes in aluminium prices over 5 years on the London Stock Exchange
Now let’s do the maths. Suppose the price has doubled and the overpayment on a tonne of metal is $1,500. My Rossini weighs 16kg. Let’s assume that the weight of the hull is 10kg. 1000kg divided by 10 = 100 Rossini hulls. $1500 overpayment divided by, let’s say, 75 hulls = we get a whopping $20. At the end of the day it’s $50. It seems to me that the thesis of metal overpricing breaks down completely. What do you think? This kind of maths can be used in every thesis about universal problems.
There are so many variables involved. Here are just two:
- Price: I’d love it if dCS gear were cheaper. dCS would probably love it if were more expensive.
- Capacity: I’d love it if there was no waitlist for a new bit of kit. dCS would probably like it too. (Though not necessarily.)
Even if those two variables were the end of it, there is already some tension that might/should affect prices: Why leave money on the table if you’re already selling all the kit you can make? Bumping up prices — whether we like it or not — is one way for dCS to help their business stay healthy. Especially if variable costs are increasing, as they seem to be for everybody. Do we think it would it be better for dCS to reduce their margins and reduce their runway and/or R&D for the future?
But there are many, many more:
- have some dCS suppliers started prioritising much larger customers?
- is it costing dCS more to make each DAC than it used to?
- are alternatives now close enough that people might choose a competitor’s device over one of dCS’s lovely wares?
- are the territories that dCS operates in already saturated? Have we already bought our ears’ worth?
- is the versioning strategy of firmware releases cannibalising the sales of new gear? (How good can Bartok 2.0 sound before it stops Ben buying a Rossini or a Vivaldi or a Bonzo Dog?)
- is there some accrued resentment building over how long it takes to get a new item? (“I waited so long that they replaced what I was waiting for!”)
There are many things that dCS is nailing — I don’t want to sound too negative!
I had a go at listing the upsides/downsides/considerations here:
https://www.methodical.io/quiz/ef95dcd74cd1cb814821b3260abef65b/?access_key=8fc35b2fc70a
(Disclaimer — the above is a link to a tool my business built to help us avoid thinking the world was simple. If people think that sharing my attempt at completing it from dCS’s point of view is uncool in any way, I’ll remove it. I’m not trying to drum up business, just fuel some more healthy debate.)
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Yes, Ben. You are right. Life is more complicated than it seems. I think this whole conversation is pointless. Dcs is doing his thing and we’re doing ours. We vote with our wallets. See you at the technical debate on Dcs technique. I’ll leave you with my best wishes.
The information has been confirmed. There will be new prices tomorrow. Prices are going up by 25-30%.
Hi folks,
Seems I chose the wrong time to take a long weekend, some of these threads have exploded over the weekend!
To answer the questions raised regarding pricing, our latest price increases are a direct reflection of increased manufacturing costs.
We’ve worked hard to keep our prices stable, but the reality is that it is much more expensive to make a dCS product now than it was just six months ago. We’ve seen huge increases in the price of metalwork, electronic components, packaging and freight, among other items, and this has led to a sharp increase in the cost of both manufacturing and R&D.
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve done everything in our power to ensure we can continue making and shipping dCS products, as well as investing in innovation. We’ve managed to keep product lead times stable, and maintain continuous research and development, but this has come at an added cost, and our price increases effective Feb 1st mirror this additional expense.
With regards to future product upgrades, our engineers are always exploring how we can further enhance our products and technologies, and provide new features and benefits for dCS customers. We do have an announcement to make later in February.
As always, dCS customers will be notified whenever we have news to share, and rest assured, all upgrades and updates released by dCS are thoroughly tested to ensure they deliver real improvements.
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Да. Время не очень удачное выбрано для выходных. Без информации всё здесь взорвалось. У меня в стране есть изречение: человеку который признает вину голову не рубят. С большим интересом ждем сюрпризы приятные и меньше всего неприятные. Их уже достаточно. 
James, you provide a great justification in general terms for a price increase ( hence my “like” credit). As you will have seen many of the points that you raise have been covered by some of us here already ( though I missed out on increased R&D costs and we have both missed out on what should be salary increases for you all in 2022 just too stay in line with the higher levels of UK inflation predicted for this year).
BUT
The increases that we have been looking at are not just composed of increased manufacturing costs. There is also a hardware upgrade to Rossini and Vivaldi; Apex.
You have not mentioned this so:
-
Is this an illusion? Is there is no such thing and the dealers or distributors who have (probably inadvisably) posted price lists effective from 1st February that include this upgrade are mistaken as to the existence of such a thing?
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Is it a real thing but dCS is unwilling to tell us about it until:
[quote=“James, post:77, topic:3008”]
We do have an announcement to make later in February.[/quote]
Even though the posted price lists say it is available from tomorrow?
As you know I am a huge supporter of dCS but , bluntly, this whole thing seems to have been handled in a poor way ( not that you are in any way personally to blame). But the confusion and negative opinions posted here mean to me that matters cannot wait until “later in February”.
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James, I hope the Dealers or Distributors who possibly leaked information before it was due to be announced by dCS are properly reprimanded. Such leaks generally cause more harm than good in my opinion. 
So will there be an official announcement today? I hope to see more technical details about Apex…
Any company is of course at liberty to raise their prices. And the customer either pays up or walks away. dCS is under no obligation to justify their prices. So I welcome and appreciate the attempt to provide a rationale for the recent price increases by James.
But: the other day I was invited to dinner at someone’s house and I noticed that he had a Bartok in his system. We obviously started talking about the Bartok, and I learnt that he had bought it for 12700 € in July 2020.
Eighteen months later, the price has gone up by a whopping 45 %. Sure, R&D, metalwork, electronic components, shipping costs have all gone up (although with the Bartok, what R&D, given that there won’t be an Apex?) – but 45 %???
Imagine buying a car for 70000 € and eighteen months later that same car costs 100000 €. Would you still buy it?
Why is it that apparently audio manufacturers believe that they can get away with such massive price hikes without their customers beginning to look elsewhere?
I don’t understand the business decision, especially with regard to the Bartok. The latter was meant to offer an affordable entryway into the dCs product line. That entryway has now been banged shut for many potential customers. Same as you might consider buying a 70000 € car but will balk at forking up 100000 € for exactly the same thing.
And to repeat a point I made in an earlier post. Many who bought a Bartok had their eye on a Rossini for a future upgrade. Now look at the price for a Rossini. For how many Bartok owners is that still a reasonable (and for some us, affordable) upgrade path?
There comes a point when a company may just be perceived as greedy.
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we’re all mad! of course will some buy a 100k€ digital stack 
This kind of leakage of information has saved me a lot of money. I support such distributors. I benefited a lot from it. 
The Bartok price increasing 45% within a matter of 18 months is a dramatic change. And without any updates or enhancements too. One could surmise that demand far outstripped supply, and dCS reset prices to reach their preferred balance. But if prices rose 45% only because their cost of production rose just as significantly, that’s a big problem, because demand will obviously drop.
In what other industries have prices risen that significantly that fast?
The CEO of my gas and electricity supplier has written to all of us customers saying that unless he is able to find a solution to spread the cost of the energy prices he is paying we should prepare ourselves for an <75% increase after April. Such increases are common across the energy sector in the UK .
It is April as I am a domestic customer and that is when the existing cap on increases imposed by the government ceases. That cap does not apply to businesses and dCS are already subject to these rises. As the world market price of energy exceeds what may be charged to domestic users 30 UK energy suppliers have gone bust since the beginning of last year.
Ocean freight prices have increased by 140% over the past year.
There are more examples. It is not an easy world out there right now.
Here in Spain electricity prices set new records every day, and last year increase was +65% , this year start following same price trend . Gasoline, Diesel, + 25% in just one year and going up every day…Inflation reach the highest value since 1991, +6% … dCS sharp price rise follow this trend to…
Same for Belgium…
All fair points. But we need power and don’t have much choice. Nice to haves like beautiful DACs are another matter. If companies like dCS are having to compete against higher prices all around it gets even more challenging. If everything is rising the crunch gets real.
It is time to switch to vinyl, the running cost of a 3 or 4 Vivaldi boxes will be out of control
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