Hello Head-Fi community.
Please excuse my intrusion into the thread. Let me begin by thanking you the head-fi community for such a wonderful response to our products and for the continued passion many of you have for our products and their unique design and sound signature.
We, here at Aurisonics, have been building a company whose products are unlike anything else out there; the IEM market is crowded, and we didn't simply want to build like everyone else and hope that people caught on. We have also been building a customer base like none other - focusing on providing excellent customer service and responding to the requests of the individual rather than the masses. We want every Custom IEM that leaves our HQ to go to an owner that will respect the time and effort that has gone into crafting their personal product. No customer is dealt with as a number. Every customer has a name; their wants and needs matter. As such, we trust, that when we build for someone that they are going to be exceptionally thrilled with our craftsmanship, our service and, above all, the unique sound of our monitors.
I've written this to unify an ongoing discussion about the current pricing for the new AS-2 - in a hope to silence the speculation and return to a discussion of impressions, reviews and reactions. I could break everything down and explain why the prices have come to be the way they are. But all that really needs to be said is, they are priced where they need to be. I'll explain further in a moment.
We put our generics and our original AS-1 at prices that reflected the cost efficiency of our production process and passed that on to our customers. The base price of the AS-2 reflects that same intention. The "classic frosted" finish that has been discussed is merely the familiar look of the Aurisonics brand. Up to this point it is what all generics and customs have looked like. So the $799 price reflects the best price we could offer for our production costs on the AS-2. Inside every AS-2 is a purpose-built dual balanced armature tweeter - alongside our traditional 15mm dynamic that has been one of our brand-defining features thus far. The combination of these two is not merely a case of dropping them in to a shell of someone's ear impression. The two have to be balanced with one another, timed to perfection so that sound from these drivers driven simultaneously arrives at your ear drum in-phase. Fitting this technology into varied and unique impressions is a task that takes a lot of time to get right and with some extremely unique software and algorithms that assist us with tuning each set.
For our initial foray into more interesting designs we decided to provide three options. These probably won't always be the only options available, but for now, it was what I am confident we can provide to the same standard that I have always insisted upon for Aurisonics products. These options are Chrome, 24k Gold and Black Rhodium. We are using genuine precious metals over metalized plates that are hand polished multiple times throughout the process to jewelry like perfection. This is not plastic chrome like on mass produced off-shore manufactured inexpensive earbuds...
Obviously there is a cost to fine-crafting with precious metals. And again we have set our price to reflect the cost of materials, the time taken and technical ability required to produce these beautiful hand-crafted aesthetically pleasing features. We made the decision to provide these with a polished shell as this reflected our promotional material. I wanted everyone to know that we can sell in quantity what was being seen in images online. However, pictures really don't do them justice.
The options we are providing, at this time, are Frosted, Polished w/Chrome, Polished w/24k Gold and Polished w/Black Rhodium. As I hinted above, these may not always be the options that are available - but they are what is available right now and the pricing for these reflect the cost of materials, the time taken and technical ability required to produce these to jewelry quality perfection.
I hope that this clears up any confusion regarding our latest product. Once again, I thank you for your enthusiasm and look forward to more of you getting your hands on these beauties and filling up this forum with your genuine reactions. That to me is the reward for the hard work that we put into your Custom products.
One final note, you may have noticed we have not yet posted official pricing or the ability to purchase the AS-2 online or have released the group buy on-head-fi. I can only say the NAMM show took us completely off guard. The reactions from the pro musician community and the amount of sales generated was mind boggling. I ask that you are patient with us as we work through orders. We would rather have you wait a bit longer to ensure everyone is treated with the same care and personal attention we pride ourselves in giving to our customers. Thanks once again for your continued support of our products we truly appreciate each and every customer and are honored that you have chosen to be a part of the Aurisonics family...
Dale Lott - CEO Aurisonics, Inc.
