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.
1 Like
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
2 Likes
Anyone else caught wind of a new ultra high end product coming out above the Vivaldi?
Yes, rumours about Dvorak.
Given the increased costs, I sure hope that DCS owners will be able to upgrade their existing units rather than need to purchase entirely new units.
I’d much prefer to send in my Rossini DAC and clock for a board upgrade instead of switching to a completely different version.
1 Like
I hope not by that name. There’s a reason the letter ř is taught among the last in Czech schools.
I like my dCS to sound musical, including its name. Rossini… Vivaldi…
Rumours. It sounds like:
Click the speaker icon at the bottom left. Sounds pretty musical.
I know what it sounds like; I was born not too far from his homeland. I maintain my position 
Got it. dCS might reconsider.
While that may be the case for you personally, but a dealer (or distributor) who cannot assure a principal’s strict, and often legally binding confidence, can have significant negative impact on a brand.
This “Apex” leak is likely a good example, so much angst from posters here on dcs.community, with accusations of poor communication etc., all because some dealer jumped the gun and leaked embargoed information.
As they say; loose lips can sink ships. 
2 Likes
I am sorry, but if a dealer warns a client who is ordering a dCS product, that a new product is on it’s way (at different prices), I can only appreciate that. If dCS/distibutors don’t want that to happen they should only send the new information out when all is done and dusted. The dealers have the contacts with customers.
Also I don’t think the reactions would have been different, at this time most people are thinking/talking about the huge inflation rates across the board.
2 Likes