Harbeth speakers

[ranjeetrain]

I have been on a lookout for Harbeth speakers for some time in the used market. But haven't had much luck. There are one odd listings once in a while but the asking price isn't really encouraging. So I decided to look at the Brand new market. In my quest, I spoke to the India dealer about the purchase of a Harbeth, but a deal couldn't be made. The mark-up was way too high. So, I decided to look else where.

After a long search I managed to find some distributors in Shanghai/Beijing who agreed to kind of sell me at the wholesale price :licklips: Now I am in a fix as to whether it is really going be beneficial after shipping cost and potentially paying customs.

Here are the price I have: P3ESR - 135,000/-, Super SHL5 - 225,000/-, Monitor 30.1 - 210,000/-. All of these are approx prices in Indian rupee at current exchange rate. All the products would come with warranty but that would be valid in China I suppose.

Now here is the deal. Buying here is fine but transporting them to India would be back breaking using the conventional methods such as DHL/Fedex. In an attempt to work out a better solution, I got in touch with some freight companies that send the stuff by the sea. Their pricing is a lot more affordable but they don't deal with small assignments from end-users. For that method to work the size of the shipment should be a minimum required. That brings me to the question.

Are there any people here who are in line for Harbeth speakers but affordability is an issue? If there are and if these prices sound encouraging enough, may be we can have a group buy going?

I am quite positive that even if we have to pay full customs, the price would still be much lower than the price demanded by the India distributor. Let's talk about it.

 

[ghatgepatil]

The Indian Harbeth dealer would be screaming 'murder'!

 

[arj]

Ranjeetrain ,

My opinion, Safer to Use Fedex/DHL despite the cost. But since these are heavy you will also need to have a CHA (Clearance and Handling Agent) to release this from Customs (ie if Above 50Kg)

Else you will need an Export Import Certificate

considering Customs/Shipping , is this still cheaper ?

 

[prajith25]

hi ranjeetrain, Glad to find someone with the same quest. I checked the price of P3ESR, its Rs 106930 in Malaysia and Rs 135089 in Singapore. I was planning to personally travel to Malaysia or Singapore to pick it up. But its all depends on how fast I can arrange the finance.

I am in for any group buy. But it should work less than my original plan

 

[ranjeetrain]

Ranjeetrain ,

My opinion, Safer to Use Fedex/DHL despite the cost. But since these are heavy you will also need to have a CHA (Clearance and Handling Agent) to release this from Customs (ie if Above 50Kg)

Else you will need an Export Import Certificate

considering Customs/Shipping , is this still cheaper ?

Fedex/DHL will increase the cost significantly. Makes no sense to spend that kind of money on shipping. Considering that there still would be customs to be paid (most likely). Worst case scenario, I will pick a pair for myself, but the bigger models will be ruled out in that case. The quest is to minimize the shipping cost by having a large shipment rather than a small one.

I am aware of the requirements of handling agent. I will need to rope in agent not only in India but also in China. Customs clearance is required on the Chinese side as well.

hi ranjeetrain, Glad to find someone with the same quest. I checked the price of P3ESR, its Rs 106930 in Malaysia and Rs 135089 in Singapore. I was planning to personally travel to Malaysia or Singapore to pick it up. But its all depends on how fast I can arrange the finance.

I am in for any group buy. But it should work less than my original plan

Malaysia price seems dirt cheap. If the info you have is correct, I would rather fly via Malaysia next time and pick one on the way. I don't even need to fly specifically to get the speakers.

But, lets see how this develops. If we can complete a group buy successfully, it will a new beginning.

Prajith, what finish is the price you have for? Harbeth speaker prices vary greatly based on finish.

 

[prajith25]

I called dealer in KL and SG in the morning. Harbeth is cheapest in KL than any other place in the world.

 

[doors666]

save urself a lot of dough and get these - Continuum home

 

[ranjeetrain]

I called dealer in KL and SG in the morning. Harbeth is cheapest in KL than any other place in the world.

Can you pass me on the KL dealer number?

 

[prajith25]

Can you pass me on the KL dealer number?

Name Mr. Sam Chan
Phone + 603 40235484
Company Tropical Audio (M) SDN BHD
Address 25, Jalan Genting Klang
Setapak
53300 Kuala Lumpur
West Malaysia

 

[arj]

hi ranjeetrain, Glad to find someone with the same quest. I checked the price of P3ESR, its Rs 106930 in Malaysia and Rs 135089 in Singapore. I was planning to personally travel to Malaysia or Singapore to pick it up. But its all depends on how fast I can arrange the finance.

I am in for any group buy. But it should work less than my original plan

Is this price differential worth it ? You end up spending the airfare, loss of 2 days and then haggle and pay the customs guy..my guess is you will save around 10 k..??

 

[prajith25]

Is this price differential worth it ? You end up spending the airfare, loss of 2 days and then haggle and pay the customs guy..my guess is you will save around 10 k..??

The price of P3ESR is Rs 2,01,000 in Bangalore.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Is this price differential worth it ? You end up spending the airfare, loss of 2 days and then haggle and pay the customs guy..my guess is you will save around 10 k..??

Very much worth it. Specially if you go higher up the ladder. I was quoted 3.6L for SHL5. And any discount from that was like asking for a favor. Even if I fly exclusively to buy it and pay full customs, I'd still end up paying less. This is exactly the same thing I said to the dealer. But he has his own reasons to not be able to offer a better price.

 

[arj]

The price of P3ESR is Rs 2,01,000 in Bangalore.

ok..:sad:

 

[prajith25]

This is what Alan Shaw had to say about the price difference.

Total cost of ownership
Originally Posted by STHLS5
...I hope there won't be any price increase to subsidize Harbeth prices in higher GDP countries...

"No, there is no possibility of that, rest assured. Each market - each importer/retail chain - has to balance the books and set a pricing strategy that is viable in their own market. We don't set a global retail price; that would be far to difficult to calculate and to be fair to all consumers. And impossible to police.

We're luck here at the factory in the UK. Our costs are controllable because that's a high priority for us. For example, no fleet of fancy cars here. In fact, Harbeth Ltd. doesn't own a car - my seven year old car is my own personal property and so are its running costs. But we can spread our unavoidable but controllable overheads over thousands of pairs of speakers made every year.

But let's for a minute put ourselves in the shoes of the importer, and then the retailer. All of our 40+ distributors are small companies; most are family concerns; some, like the highly successful Harbeth Japan are both family businesses and single-brand businesses. All have overheads too, but spread over their tens or hundreds or pairs (unlike our thousands of pairs) a year means that each pair supports a significant overhead, much more than our overheads per pair. That's unavoidable. That's how commerce works.

But we should always keep in mind not the original purchase price but the TCO - total cost of ownership, which spread over twenty years makes a Harbeth a very inexpensive long term acquisition. And an environmental success story."
Alan A. Shaw
Designer, owner
Harbeth Audio UK

 

[Nikhil]

To some extent I have to sympathize with the Indian dealers ...

The crazy drop in the Rupee has to hurt everyone here dealers included.
Add to that the Duties + Insurance + Freight costs which have to be taken into consideration.
Thats just landed cost. They have to then add on their over heads which is not getting any cheaper.

The Malaysian/Chinese dealers are in a far better situation than our guys here.

 

[ranjeetrain]

I am in the camp too, of people who sympathize with the Indian dealers. They swim against the current more often than not. That's why my first preference was to buy from the authorized Indian dealer. But when things don't work out people have to look for alternates.

BTW, when I had inquired about Harbeth the rupee was trading at 47 to a dollar. So this talk of drop in rupee is not applicable here. I can't even think how much Indian dealer would want for a SHL5 now, now that rupee has depreciated like 33%. May be north of 4.5 lacs? Or even higher?

Chinese dealers are in no way better situation than Indian dealers. Chinese economy faces an entirely different set of problems, which are not known in the outside world. I have lived in China for a long time and I know their economy inside-out. For the record's sake, Chinese retail prices are usually higher than Indian retail prices (or at least should be higher) owing to higher taxation and operating costs. But in this particular case even Chinese retail price is cheaper than the Indian retail.

 

[doors666]

To some extent I have to sympathize with the Indian dealers ...

The crazy drop in the Rupee has to hurt everyone here dealers included.
Add to that the Duties + Insurance + Freight costs which have to be taken into consideration.
Thats just landed cost. They have to then add on their over heads which is not getting any cheaper.

The Malaysian/Chinese dealers are in a far better situation than our guys here.

Its the same case for all the dealers everywhere... do u think chinese/malasian dealers dont have to pay duties or freight and insurance. Dont take the MRP in the origin country as a basis for your calculations. That already includes the distributor, dealer profits, vat/taxes etc. Company gives the product to the distributor at a huge discount to account for his profits and overheads etc and the fact that he needs to support his dealer network, if he ends up directly selling to the end user, he makes another huge killing due to the fact the a middleman is cutoff.

if a dealer in china is selling a product for 1,35000, that already includes profits for dealer and distributor (of course that accounts for his overheads also), taxes, shipping from UK to china, insurance etc. Even if you assume that it costs a little more for india than china due to maybe higher shipping or higher duty, it still should be at the most some 10-15k higher. The rest is probably due to excessive profit making from the dealer.

 

[mshifi]

I was quoted a price of Rs 3.32 lacs for SHL5 in april this yr by the india dealer

 

[arj]

.. Dont take the MRP in the origin country as a basis for your calculations. That already includes the distributor, dealer profits, vat/taxes etc. Company gives the product to the distributor at a huge discount to account for his profits and overheads etc and the fact that he needs to support his dealer network, if he ends up directly selling to the end user, he makes another huge killing due to the fact the a middleman is cutoff.

in one of the products the dealers cost was 50% of the MRP..hence it takes care of most of the cost impacts barring product obsolescence..in fact those who ship direct due to lack of dealers here are willing to send it to you such that the landed cost including shipping/customs is equivalent to their US MRP ..thats what had happened with my merlin speakers

 

[panditji]

My apologies here to the dealers but I have no sympathy for them as they have entered an industry with the sole point of making profit...

Dealers all over the world face the same issues/problems with respect to costs/duties/insurance/overheads.....if they have entered the business, they have to put more money in stocks to enable them to bargain for better rates from the manufacturers, market/educate the products in a cost efficient way and sell them at better rates than the competition like all other businesses....If the consumers are buying the products elsewhere then they have to adapt else exit the business if they are not up to it....in fact, I feel the overheads are lower in India than in any other country as the salaries are lower, the rentals are probably the same which are the major overhead expenses...

Nobody is doing us a favour by getting a particular brand in the country.... if they feel they cannot invest money in stocking the right amount of products then they should set up shop somewhere else....

Dollar rate increasing, I can understand but even when the dollar was 45-46 INR, the dealer margins were exhorbitant and as a consumer I have every right to buy from whomsoever and wherever I want.....