so its no secret but i have been looking hard for a good mid to low-ish level stereo amp for my pc system. contenders include Rega brio r, marantz pm 6004 or pm 7004, yamaha as500 or as700, the cambridge audio 650, cyrus and so on. after lots of emails i have hit the usual damn stumbling block PRICE.
looking at online reviews on what hi-fi and so on you come across prices and when i do a quick conversion it very rarely adds up. what really bothers me is the marantz pricing. marantz sells pretty well here in SA, most dealers carry it (dion wired helps shift large numbers aswell im assuming) and yet we pay a fair damn premium on the stereo amps (the only ones i have really looked into). my question is why? a good example is the Marantz pm6004, what hi-fi says 310 pounds (about R4340 direct exchange at 14bucks a pound), hfx says R7300, yamaha as 500 in what hi-fi is 330 pounds (R4620 direct conversion), local pricing is about R5500. so why then are we paying so much more for marantz? servicing and import duties apply equally to yamaha (another brand that seems to sell well). can someone please explain why we pay more, cause i feel im missing something here. :thinking:
these are both big brands with a large following and large companies that import them, so why is one even more expensive than the other. i mean dont even get me started on brands like oppo :thumbs: (had to go there) cyrus and rega, they all cost far more here, but they not shifting in the same quantities as yamaha or marantz so perhaps the importers need to add extra on to cover parts and so on and cant get great deals from the manufacturer.honestly it seems like in SA the guys are buying all their stock from hifi stores overseas, paying full retail aswell, and then shipping them in one by one (i mean how else can the daft pricing be explained).
P.s i know this has been touched on many times, but i still cant see why we pay such a premium on even the biggest selling brands. :walled:
looking at online reviews on what hi-fi and so on you come across prices and when i do a quick conversion it very rarely adds up. what really bothers me is the marantz pricing. marantz sells pretty well here in SA, most dealers carry it (dion wired helps shift large numbers aswell im assuming) and yet we pay a fair damn premium on the stereo amps (the only ones i have really looked into). my question is why? a good example is the Marantz pm6004, what hi-fi says 310 pounds (about R4340 direct exchange at 14bucks a pound), hfx says R7300, yamaha as 500 in what hi-fi is 330 pounds (R4620 direct conversion), local pricing is about R5500. so why then are we paying so much more for marantz? servicing and import duties apply equally to yamaha (another brand that seems to sell well). can someone please explain why we pay more, cause i feel im missing something here. :thinking:
these are both big brands with a large following and large companies that import them, so why is one even more expensive than the other. i mean dont even get me started on brands like oppo :thumbs: (had to go there) cyrus and rega, they all cost far more here, but they not shifting in the same quantities as yamaha or marantz so perhaps the importers need to add extra on to cover parts and so on and cant get great deals from the manufacturer.honestly it seems like in SA the guys are buying all their stock from hifi stores overseas, paying full retail aswell, and then shipping them in one by one (i mean how else can the daft pricing be explained).
P.s i know this has been touched on many times, but i still cant see why we pay such a premium on even the biggest selling brands. :walled:
