Final Audio Design Appreciation/Discussion Thread - Page 37

I think I reported back when I did my review of the SB that it was noticeable when covering the vent hole, flattens the sound and is more lifeless

anyone can tell me where I can buy final audio x-cc in USA with a reasonable price?

 

Final Audio has no official distributor for the US, AFAIK. Which means you'll have to import them. Try:

 

PriceJapan

Musica Acoustics

Jaben

Hi MuppetFace,

 

I too have a high interest in the X-CC and hope to make the acquisition in the 2nd quarter of next year.

 

I can purchase it from my local audio store, but the markup is extremely high nearing the USD3k plateau mark.

 

I noticed the lowest price is about USD2.25k here:

 

http://kakaku.com/item/K0000242773/?lid=ksearch_kakakuitem_image

 

The benchmark Amazon.jp price is USD2.5k, so I figure I can get it in that range if I go visit Japan.

 

Are you familiar with any of the listed stores?  I want the price quote to be reliable to justify taking a trip to Japan.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Not familiar with any of those listings, unfortunately. What I do is use PriceJapan because they will search the Japanese market for the lowest price and quote it to you if you fill out a request form. The discounts are sometimes really huge.

For those interested, an enthusiastic Japanese person has purchased the Heaven VI (along with the Heaven IV), and posted short impressions. Seems positive so far.

 

The filter design has been modified (a good thing, as the IV design had a tendency to fall off; mine did, and I had to send it back to FAD for repair), and an even more welcome chin slider has been added. FAD seems to be slowly, but surely getting back down to earth and getting grounded in reality. Perhaps the space cadets there are gaining their astronaut licenses?

Thanks for posting that, I hope FAD do not venture though too far into reality for their attitude to music reproduction makes them what they are, plenty of bland companies churning out the same old same old, hopefully FAD won't go down that path and lose what it is that has brought most of us to them!

I like the shiny new case though I can't imagine it remaining shiny for long!

Thanks.  I tried PriceJapan and the communication has been poor.  I have ordered from them 7 years ago with no issues, but not very responsive this time around.  They also quoted me a price higher than the local audio store price and higher than their website price (PF IX), but no explanation.  I have not tried the request form route and will look into that process next year.  Otherwise, will research the Japanese sellers and take a short trip to make a the potential purchase.  All the best.

Edited by Tera-Fi - 10/20/12 at 9:38am

Thus far I have only been listening to the Solti Studio recording of the ring cycle (which BTW is a magnificent recording). But the other day I decided to re-rip my Bohm Bayreuth 67' live version, all 14 CD's into Wav.

Last night was the first opportunity I have had to have a good long listen in a while and the first proper listen to it through the PF's!

So, part of the bumf from FAD about these phones is that they reproduced a concert hall feeling and listening last night I can only agree! To put some perspective on this. I have had this recording on LP, on Cassette and CD, I have listened to it for years, know it really well but I have to tell you, this is truly the first time I have really " heard" it!

How these wunderkind phones present the acoustic, how they allow one to follow the performers as they move from right to left, back to front is breathtaking. This is a fairly brisk rendition of the Ring and one can feel it with the PF's, it truly feels like an out of the head experience and I have not had that with any other headphone that I have used before.

But it is the way these phones convey texture and emotion that simply never ceases to amaze me. I have to be honest, the LCD's have been in their box for the past two weeks and I am now seriously thinking of selling them and getting a tube amp as though I love the synergy between the PF's and the Blackbird I just get this niggling feeling these phones were made for tube amplification!
Edited by ianmedium - 10/20/12 at 9:54am

 

I ordered my PF IX from PriceJapan. No issues.

 

I don't understand the comment "They also quoted me a price higher than the local audio store price and higher than their website price (PF IX), but no explanation." If you buy the PF IX on their website, why would you need a quote? If you are talking about the X-CC, you have to factor in their 5% profit.

Take 5 minutes and watch this.

 

That voice... wait for it.

 

http://www.wimp.com/thatvoice/

They are Excellent!

 

They quote you a price before you buy based on their shopping around for the lowest available price. In theory, at least. They don't actually supply most of their stuff, but get it from other suppliers.

 

True. I was thinking that he was referring to an email quote but it is an electronic quote system. I did get the lowest price on Kakaku plus the expected mark-up so it worked for me. 

 

I still don't understand what Tera-Fi was actually saying...

Hey you two.  Thanks for helping out.

 

Sorry about the mix-up.  The price quote sentence was a last second edit.

 

I am going to skip PriceJapan this time around for the FADs and try to get it on my own as a walk-in somewhere.

 

But to try to clear things up...

 

Basically, I went through the order process on the website:

 

After the fee and shipping, total was about $1100.

 

I copy and pasted the quote in the reply.  They replied back via e-mail with a price of $1400 and a payment method since I do no have PayPal.  Thus, I cannot order directly from the website with the $1100 quoted price.

 

I e-mailed back about the price discrepancy and asked about a quote for the X-CC.  No response.  So, giving up.

 

The local audio store charges around $1375, so major difference.

 

No worries, I was not ready to order this month anyways since in Head-Fi recovery mode.  @ $1100, would seriously consider in about a month.  X-CC is a unjustifiable splurge so need patience and more time with this beast.

 

So happy to just bypass PriceJapan at this time.  I am due for a trip back to Japan, so it is not too problematic.  I also just noticed that the lowest price quote for the IX is the same NTT-X Store as the X-CC.  This will be my first store I will visit when I am ready.  

 

BTW, what is or was your thought process in choosing between the X-G and X-CC.  I want something more low profile, so X-CC seems like the right choice.  Any difference in the sound between the two?