The B&Ws have arrived in Chennai!

[mpw]

venkat,

i stumbled onto this thread and i have a question. The MRP of many speaker brands in USA and India are the same ( i mean reputed brands .. ) If the MRP is USA is $100 and then we add duties and freight etc..then MRP in Inda mist be $150..

Then why MRP are same in USA and India for same product ??

I must apologize if this topic is OT but i was always asking this question to myself.

regards,
mpw

 

[Sunderpalanivel]

venkat,

i stumbled onto this thread and i have a question. The MRP of many speaker brands in USA and India are the same ( i mean reputed brands .. ) If the MRP is USA is $100 and then we add duties and freight etc..then MRP in Inda mist be $150..

Then why MRP are same in USA and India for same product ??

I must apologize if this topic is OT but i was always asking this question to myself.

regards,
mpw

May be because not all the speakers are imported from US ? Many speakers that you see similar price un US/ India may have been imported from a third country (lest say UK) into US / India.

 

[musicbee]

May be because not all the speakers are imported from US ? Many speakers that you see similar price un US/ India may have been imported from a third country (lest say UK) into US / India.

That's funny... calling UK a third world country.

More like China, India or Pakistan.

My sister got me a lot of T Shirts from the US on her last trip... excellent quality, colors, material and so comfortable... till my wife began to dump them in the washing machine and found "Made In Pakistan" under the collar. Now I don't think I'm wearing American clothes anymore... though the rest of America is wearing them!

 

[xred]

That's funny... calling UK a third world country.

More like China, India or Pakistan.

My sister got me a lot of T Shirts from the US on her last trip... excellent quality, colors, material and so comfortable... till my wife began to dump them in the washing machine and found "Made In Pakistan" under the collar. Now I don't think I'm wearing American clothes anymore... though the rest of America is wearing them!

He said 'third country' and not 'third world country'.

 

[musicbee]

He said 'third country' and not 'third world country'.

My bad... and my apologies!

Unlikely though for costs to remain low in 3rd countries. Definitely though in 3rd world countries.

 

[nowwhat?]

I too am disappointed with the new 68x series & also the CM-series which I'd say are waaaayy too bright & needs 'very careful matching' with ancillary equipment.

Their pre-1998 models in this area were much superior. Pity the company decided to heavily commercialize 'post-1997' thus tilted the tonal spectrum balance towards the brighter side of life & making the speaker more forward sounding .. from their traditional house sound of the 1986-1997 era that earned them the title as the Industry leader for Classical music monitoring.

In the 600-series, their series-2 were relatively well done. So were their CDM-series.

Most disappointing was their newest 800 Diamond-II which lack superior damping even after mating it with several amplifiers costing twice the spk's value. :sad:

Competitively, the ATC SCM 100 Anniversary would eat it alive !!

Coming back to B&W pricing in India, I'm afraid its waaayy too skewed towards high profits by the distributor/importer, AVI. Until & unless they wake up & make the necessary adjustments to pricing it correctly, the sales figures will stay low whilst many would seek to continue importing them from out of the country as a better route.

Its all in the hands of AVI & doubt what dealers like "Decibel" can do.

To me, this post from 2chfreak corroborates with my personal experience.

Decibel, I can see that some facts may be misplaced (such as the yellow Kevlar woofers) but your heart seems to be in the right place.

More importantly, I wish you all the best knowing that you have to deal with AVI. I had a call with a senior person over there a few weeks ago and I can't tell you how disappointed and disgusted I am. That person also parroted the same line as to how difficult it is to import spares into India and that I would have to pay a lot in customs duty.

When will our HiFi dealers be like the one in this Porsche commerical?

Porsche 911 commercial - YouTube

After being smitten by B&W recently, I am one in B&W's target audience. However I would most likely import one myself. Many in this forum have imported everything from bookshelfs to floor-standing speakers themselves. Servicing is not much of an issue as these are passive compared to active components like amplifiers where the warranty is important.

In any case, local dealer support for spares and servicing for B&W in India is non-existent.

 

[srinisundar]

Our FM Balagopalan has imported 804( may be not right about the model number it is an floor stander) itself to India from dubai in check-in luggage and he has written somewhere in the other thread.. why not the other sleek models with out extra fittings(tweeter) in top.

 

[square_wave]

Hi

First of all Congrats for taking B&W dealership.

My humble request to B&W dealers, Don't except your customers to come only in BMW Car to audition these speakers. I know this sounds irrelevant to this thread.

I had bitter experience when i went to B&W dealer in Bangalore to audition subwoofer. The Dealer showed me 608 model as demo. When I asked about the other higher end model 10" or 12" he said its in another room and hesitated to show demo.

Finally when it comes to pricing, he said (x) amount plus taxes. He was not even interested to say the final amount.

My humble request when some one shows interest on your product, try to show that back by giving enough details with interest.

The B&W dealer in Bangalore has a very specific goal and business attitude. The target demographic is a class of people who believe that audio gear is like a luxury car.

If you are looking for value and high fidelity sound, there are far superior options.

 

[Simon Wires]

Is that happened in that Indiranagar 80ftRd showroom ? I have also experienced the same.

Hi

First of all Congrats for taking B&W dealership.

My humble request to B&W dealers, Don't except your customers to come only in BMW Car to audition these speakers. I know this sounds irrelevant to this thread.

I had bitter experience when i went to B&W dealer in Bangalore to audition subwoofer. The Dealer showed me 608 model as demo. When I asked about the other higher end model 10" or 12" he said its in another room and hesitated to show demo.

Finally when it comes to pricing, he said (x) amount plus taxes. He was not even interested to say the final amount.

My humble request when some one shows interest on your product, try to show that back by giving enough details with interest.

 

[bournurplusher]

do u have b & w p5 headphone?

 

[ROBIN LANDANSON]

Congratulations on getting the dealership !!

One word For the potential buyers:
B&W makes good speakers. I ownedd their older 3xx series and then 686, 685 later moved on to cm7 & cm9 and then finally 804s.

During all this time I was just going by the brand name and it gave me enough happiness. The only problem area is their metal dome tweeter which is not so good for people who care quality high end.

IMO, Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 perform better than 685.
686 is the black sheep in the range.

So please do not go to the auditioning that all B&W speakers are great. In fact any thing below 8 series has serious competition.

Nothing against B&W as I am still a big fan of the brand but some particular products / range of speakers are positioned beyond their performance riding on the brand name, IMO
Once you are clear before the audition, then it will help you to have the audition purely on performance and not on brand (I admit, I bought the speakers in the beginning, just on the brand name)

My 2 paisa!

Last year I'd two bookshelf speakers. B&W 805 matrix and wharfedale jade 3 spkrs.
Wharfedale jade speaker is far better than b&w 805. Some people believes only in brand value. In my view point b&w 685 is an ordinary speaker. Build quality is very cheap and sound quality is average.

 

[don_karma_ii]

Hi, I'm from Madurai and I'm looking for floor standers and amplifier to match them. I'm looking at B&W 683 s2 or PSB image T6. Can OT please provide the pricing and availability of these products for purchase and demo.
Regards,
Vinod.

 

[reubensm]

B&W speakers are highly rated and very desirable. Congratulations on your venture. I am sure it will give many an opportunity to own a pair of speakers from the B&W stable.

My experience with B&W has honestly not been that great. I used the DM3000 vintage towers for a while and did not like them as they sounded quite bland to me, but that's my personal view.

 

[don_karma_ii]

I haven't heard any setups yet so nothing is written on stone as of now. I hear a lot of good things about PSB and I was looking at other potential setups so that I can audition 4-5 setups in a day for which I have to travel 450kms from Madurai to Chennai!

 

[kanna.sridharan]

I haven't heard any setups yet so nothing is written on stone as of now. I hear a lot of good things about PSB and I was looking at other potential setups so that I can audition 4-5 setups in a day for which I have to travel 450kms from Madurai to Chennai!

Decibel has the 683 S2 on demo, it would be best to visit and audition it. They used to deal with PSB earlier, now there's not one on demo, they prefer to sell REVEL.

Regarding other setups you would like to consider
1. Grand Cinema, Chennai - Wharfedale, Paradigm
2. ProFx, Chennai - KEF, Cabasse
3. AudioPeople, Chennai - Monitor Audio
4. Museek, Trichy - Dali, Paradigm

These were all the places I had auditioned a couple of months back before picking up. A day visit to Chennai and you could visit them all, start from Decibel, they are the one's who start the day early.

Cheers!

 

[sound_cycle]

Decibel has the 683 S2 on demo, it would be best to visit and audition it.
A day visit to Chennai and you could visit them all, start from Decibel, they are the one's who start the day early.

+1. BTDT.

Add Vipul Audio, Old No 287 New No 195 (Near Kilpauk Post Office), Kilpauk Garden Road, Kilpauk, 600010 Chennai to the list.

ciao
gr

 

[piyush78]

hi friends , need inputs regarding two wall mounted speakers. B&W M1 & Monitor Audio R90. Which would be better of for HT purposes for a midsize room. B&W is about 5k more expensive per speaker. Which of these offer better dynamic range as well as detailing. Do these offer better sound compared to VFM / cheaper alternatives like the sonodyne Genie 1 or Genie 2 for HT applications.
Thanks in advance