In India imported Hi Fi equipment is OVER PRICED .. TRUE OR FALSE ??

Anyone any idea how much discount can be squeezed out from these dealers. I intend to pick up Klipsch RF7iii fronts and RC64iii centre.
 
who’s the klipsch distributor in India? Any ideas anyone


Hi Saurabh,
Cinebels are also dealers for Klipsh

They have stores in various states but Ahmedabad would be closest to you. If you show them that you are really interested then they do give discounts.

Regards
 
Quick update. My current need is that I want a pre and power combo with 100w/ch RMS. Shortlisted 2: Vidar + SYS (cheap preamp) and the IOTAVX SA3 and PA3 combo (thanks to my friend who got me interested in this brand). I was casually checking their website and something caught my eye:
Screen Shot 2020-04-26 at 11.37.12 AM.png

I inquired with them via chat and they are saying 'yes, we cover the duties and taxes as that's the problematic piece in the deal'. If you guys are interested in this, you may also check with them. Maybe, once the lockdown is over, we can make a bulk buy? Not that they will give discounts - they are anyways covering the duties and taxes (if that's true). Does anyone have any experience with them? Thoughts?

Btw, they also confirmed that they don't have any dealers in India. Just FYI.
 
The depiction in the picture,...... I beg to differ. I have tried many Indian hifi brands, Sonodyne, Norge etc etc..........they are nowhere near the imported units when it comes to performance or built, forget aesthetics. I agree to your point that imported hifi is highly overpriced, especially brands like Naim, Dynaudio. Their prices are never justifiable.
Are you comparing Sonodyne or Norge with Naim?
 
Quick update. My current need is that I want a pre and power combo with 100w/ch RMS. Shortlisted 2: Vidar + SYS (cheap preamp) and the IOTAVX SA3 and PA3 combo (thanks to my friend who got me interested in this brand). I was casually checking their website and something caught my eye:
View attachment 45373

I inquired with them via chat and they are saying 'yes, we cover the duties and taxes as that's the problematic piece in the deal'. If you guys are interested in this, you may also check with them. Maybe, once the lockdown is over, we can make a bulk buy? Not that they will give discounts - they are anyways covering the duties and taxes (if that's true). Does anyone have any experience with them? Thoughts?

Btw, they also confirmed that they don't have any dealers in India. Just FYI.
You mean to say price shown in the website is including tax and duties??
 
You mean to say price shown in the website is including tax and duties??

Nope. Those are list prices. The duties and taxes are on top of that at the destination country. We have to pay for shipping though, and they use only DHL - so, could be expensive.
 
The worst kind of dealers are the ones that repaint and polish demo units and sell them as brand new ones. This has been an open secret in certain "hifi" circle at least down here in Karnataka. I also almost got conned into buying one, luckily I had a good friend in the industry who told me right on time and I got saved by a stitch instead of paying more than a lakh rupees. Please be really careful when you buy these items, you need to do your research work properly or you will get conned.
 
Nope. Those are list prices. The duties and taxes are on top of that at the destination country. We have to pay for shipping though, and they use only DHL - so, could be expensive.

You mentioned below,

I inquired with them via chat and they are saying 'yes, we cover the duties and taxes as that's the problematic piece in the deal.
 
You mentioned below,

I inquired with them via chat and they are saying 'yes, we cover the duties and taxes as that's the problematic piece in the deal.
Not sure what your question is. Whatever you see on their website, is the list price. When you add to cart, you will see the shipping rate. I don't know if the approximate duties and taxes are displayed when you checkout - wasn't able to move beyond adding to cart as DHL is not flying to India at the moment. That's when I inquired, and they said 'we cover...'. If you're asking me 'how', I don't know yet.
 
Its also about the perception management, we think brands made in India do not last, have inferior quality, or inferior support. If this has to change the manufacturers have to provide world class quality and services. We are cost conscious because things can get expensive, even if locally produced.

I often see a complete lack of innovation in local brand products, they get complacent once some sales kick in thats just my experience ofcourse and I hope to be wrong here.

And finally where do we draw the line between want and need? As a society/civilization if we are stuck in things that we just need then I guess we do not need almost everything beyond the basic necessities to survive.

I agree. Before buying my focal + denon setup I tried to contact sonodyne in every way on Fb, emails etc but they did not bother to reply even. so this is service level. now about quality, focal specs, and quality of sound is way better then sonodyne at the same price. FYI
 
I agree. Before buying my focal + denon setup I tried to contact sonodyne in every way on Fb, emails etc but they did not bother to reply even. so this is service level. now about quality, focal specs, and quality of sound is way better then sonodyne at the same price. FYI

I 1000% agree on the service levels. I have been contacting a local vendor for more info on their amps, and absolutely no response. I even explicitly mentioned that I want to buy one and that I want to know the price. I'm not writing to any generic inbox like '[email protected]', but to the 'key' person who obviously wants to sell more. They will be a niche vendor, self-branding themselves as boutique audio, and they will continue to remain so. I think we've slightly better choices, outside of these vendors, with better aesthetics, quality and brand image. You can DM me, if you're curious to know who I'm talking about, as I don't want to name them here - giving them benefit of the doubt :)
 
Not sure what your question is. Whatever you see on their website, is the list price. When you add to cart, you will see the shipping rate. I don't know if the approximate duties and taxes are displayed when you checkout - wasn't able to move beyond adding to cart as DHL is not flying to India at the moment. That's when I inquired, and they said 'we cover...'. If you're asking me 'how', I don't know yet.
Ok bro Thanks
 
I just had an interesting conversation with a dealer in Chennai. I will not name the dealer, yet. I was looking for an MJ Acoustics Pro 50 subwoofer and inquired with them. Got a quote for 97,000 and he sweetened the deal by mentioning that it includes gst :) I thought it was a typo, and sent him a screenshot of a 'new' mj pro 50 @ £254. He replied back that the unit in the screenshot is 20 yrs old and that he had quoted the price for mj pro mkiii and not the old one. He also mentioned that he cannot compete with that £254 price.

I said, fair enough, and sent him a screenshot of the MJ Acoustics Pro MKiii @ £549 and told him that he cannot compete with this price as well.

Just like you all have highlighted I understand there is govt duty, shipping, stocking and dealer margins, but, paying double the price? It's not about 'affordability', the question is about paying double the price for a product that's valued at only £549. People that want to pay double/triple are going to pay and buyers like us that look for value (heck, every guy in developed markets look for value as well) will be getting ludicrous replies from dealers like them.

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Rant proposal: I'd say, if the forum allows, we should call out dealers like these along with the prices. I know this will get dirty - but they have to be 'tamed' virtually.
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I see dealers like HPZ being pulled in and named 'unreasonable'. I disagree. Yes, there's about a 30% markup in their prices, but heck, I get the same warranty period. I have bought gears with 3-yr warranties and replaced items several times during this period - and they honored that without questions (there's a cost in this as well). I agree they can do with better discounts and loyalty programs, but at this point, I'd be asking too much from them, if I compare with the other hifi dealers.

My benchmark for prices: Crutchfield or richersounds. For example, I was looking at the price for JBL A120P sub in India at 37k and compared with Crutchfield.

I did similar comparisons when I bought the Cambridge Audio SR10 from a dealer in Chennai and the GoldenEar AON3 bookshelves from a dealer in Mumbai. We should call them out too and give them kudos, alongside the 'rant proposal'.

Anyways, the reason for this long post is because I got pissed off seeing the haughty response from the dealer. If you want to see similar responses, you may Google 'mj acoustics pro 50 Chennai', and write to that dealer.
I think ... in India the market for HI END AUDIO is very narrow ... little poor dealers will try to juice out the available customers... hence the unfair pricing !!!
 
In our country the basic mentality is to juice people in the name of taxes & duties. This high rate of customs duties often lead to corruption. If duties are levied sensibly then I am sure people would pay willingly thereby reducing corruption. If you bring in any high value electronic item from abroad, you are made to feel as if it is a crime although you have bought it from your hard earned money.
A duty of 20 to 25% is understandable but 40 to 50 % is outright ridiculous.
I agree with you that taxes and duties are used as a pretext to juice people. If you consider import duty components, custom duty is just 10% and IGST is 28% making it a total of 38%. Now this 28% IGST can be set-off with IGST sales. So the net custom duty is just 10% for the importer.

Issue is this IGST can be set-off only against sales in the financial year. If the stock remain unsold over a year then you incur losses. Thanks to the greedy importers.
 
I agree with you that taxes and duties are used as a pretext to juice people. If you consider import duty components, custom duty is just 10% and IGST is 28% making it a total of 38%. Now this 28% IGST can be set-off with IGST sales. So the net custom duty is just 10% for the importer.

Issue is this IGST can be set-off only against sales in the financial year. If the stock remain unsold over a year then you incur losses. Thanks to the greedy importers.

Sir, unlike as in the case of importers as you have rightly mentioned, most of us as end users cannot offset the igst unless if the audio gear is purchased on a business name.
Taxes and duties always go up one way or the other and never come down.
 
Some brands like Marantz, Audiolab have better prices if checked with international listing.
 
I’ve bought a lot of used vintage audio gear from Various websites from US and Europe. I’ve only be charged customs once, that too was a small amount as compared to what I was fearing it would be. All items arrived in pristine shape and in time. And not the items were not marked undervalued or as a gift. I’m a believer that you can take a chance with Customs and get it imported from abroad, till the time shipping costs don’t kill you / nobody ships them.
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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