It never changes here, doesn't it?

[murali]

I have been silent for a long time in this forum but am now tempted to note that life has not changed in our place at all...
I have been tidying up my things at home and find some old equipment unused which I have decided to set up for casual / light listening in my living room whenever I am not using my main system (Ayre-Audio Research-Aesthetix-Vandersteen-Oppo-Anthem-Pioneer Kuro). There is a Pioneer DVD player (LX-51), Rotel surround processor (RSP-1068) and a 5-channel amp (RMB-1075), along with my 5-year old 42" Pana plasma. So to begin with, all I need is a pair of decent and cheap speakers to set them up. My audiophile friends have strongly recommended the Pioneer bookshelf speakers (SP-BS22-LR) as real price-performance buy. This is available outside like Best Buy at close to $100 and in some places even below $100. Fine. So if they are available here in India, they should cost me < Rs10,000, I presume.
They are listed in amazon.in for around Rs19,000 and in another website I find them listed for Rs18,000 now discounted to Rs12,500!
So it appears things have not changed much here and it may be still worthwhile to buy equipment from outside.
murali

 

[panditji]

Absolutely sir...It makes a lot of sense to buy from outside until the prices are at par with the rest of the world...

 

[arana]

But have any of you tried to order speakers from abroad? Is there any chance of receiving something which isn't damaged during transit!

 

[matbhuvi]

At least in Car audio, we have competent dealers here. There are many high end brands ($500+) can be obtained at US price or even less during clearance sales.

 

[Naturelover]

Yes, unfortunately, that does apply to most imported AV products. Wharfedale used to be an exception. I suppose it would still be.
Another welcome exception are products from "The Listening Room" in Bangalore. Though they are mostly hi end.
Used hifi is another VFM way to go, I believe. Quite a bit of my stuff is bought used.