A Statement To Our Valued Customers in the United States

[MDKrinkles]

These stupid tariffs will irrevocably change the hifi market in the USA and worldwide. Not just our little corner of the trade world but everything else too. Not a fan.

It really sucks. Audio is one of the few hobbies that just becomes more accessible and higher quality across the board over time. Things like planar drivers and balanced amps/dacs were fairly high end when I started. Now you can get he400s for 100$ and a balanced dac/amp from ifi for 230$. You can get a balanced tube amp from apos for 130$ and it’s fantastic. And global trade is a huge reason why this is possible. Even the highest end gear will source parts from all over the globe in the pursuit of quality. Lundhal transformers, ALPs pots, mundorf capacitors, etc.

I feel like we just got to a point where chi fi was being readily accepted as a high quality offering. Cayin is now in several domestic distributors, companies like topping, Xduoo, and fiio are showing up at can jams. And now it’s all in the dumpster.

 

[scracy]

I hope this is not a sign of things to come but here in Australia and Europe Playstation 5 consoles have gone up in price by 15%. The decision made by Sony to lessen the impact of Trumps tarriffs on the American consumer. Doesn't seem right to me, I hope other companies don't follow suit.

 

[senorx12562]

Tariffs never accomplish what the orange guy claims they will. He's economically illiterate.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Tariffs never accomplish what the orange guy claims they will. He's economically illiterate.

Says the anonymous head-fi keyboard warrior. Thanks for that insight genius.

 

[PopZeus]

It doesn't take a genius to see that these tariffs are mostly going to lower standards of living within the USA. The cost of everything is going to go up, and that's coming from the Chair of the FedRes Jerome Powell.

 

[Pabsu]

America is a third world country

 

[gikigill]

Tariffs never accomplish what the orange guy claims they will. He's economically illiterate.

My wife's family is in farming and they are already trying to reroute their exports away from the USA and more towards Asia/Europe.

Electronics is only a small portion of the entire market.

 

[MDKrinkles]

My wife's family is in farming and they are already trying to reroute their exports away from the USA and more towards Asia/Europe.

Electronics is only a small portion of the entire market.

Yeah it’s really unfortunate. It’s detrimentally impacting tons of small businesses. Lots of small locally owned toy stores might have to shut down. Which sucks, they provide a service you don’t get at a big box retail. I used to work for a really small store maybe a dozen total employees. It didn’t pay much but it was a nice place to work and it was always fun when you got to make some kids day a little better.

 

[gikigill]

Yeah it’s really unfortunate. It’s detrimentally impacting tons of small businesses. Lots of small locally owned toy stores might have to shut down. Which sucks, they provide a service you don’t get at a big box retail. I used to work for a really small store maybe a dozen total employees. It didn’t pay much but it was a nice place to work and it was always fun when you got to make some kids day a little better.

Yup, they aren't big multi-millionaire farmers but they had solid contracts overseas as part of a co-op.

They alone would be negative 150k every year if they exported to the USA with the current tariff regime on top of their business expenses and profit margin so overall it would cost them a lot more than 150k.

Now imagine 30-40 farmers in the co-op and the losses would run in the tens of millions. Easier to just sell elsewhere.

 

[evanft]

Anyone who supports these tariffs has an elementary school level understanding of basic economics.

 

[frkasper]

New thread here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/notification-of-retail-price-adjustment-in-the-united-states.976635/

 

[jsmiller58]

Anyone who supports these tariffs has an elementary school level understanding of basic economics.

I think you meant “doesn’t even have an elementary school level understanding of basic economics.”

 

[Middle Earth]

I lost far far far more from the inflation from 2020 to 2024
Thousands and thousands of dollars
The overt political crap is bemusing
I will wait and see what actually happens
If I cannot buy products from the CCP for a while I don’t care
Most every component I own is from the USA, Canada and the UK/Europe

 

[jsmiller58]

I lost far far far more from the inflation from 2020 to 2024
Thousands and thousands of dollars
The overt political crap is bemusing
I will wait and see what actually happens
If I cannot buy products from the CCP for a while I don’t care
Most every component I own is from the USA, Canada and the UK/Europe

Really? Are you also considering the components used to make whatever is manufactured in the US and EU?

I remember 15 years or more ago, my eldest son, then a young lad, looking at all the boxes at Christmas and commenting that everything was made in China.

 

[MDKrinkles]

I lost far far far more from the inflation from 2020 to 2024
Thousands and thousands of dollars
The overt political crap is bemusing
I will wait and see what actually happens
If I cannot buy products from the CCP for a while I don’t care
Most every component I own is from the USA, Canada and the UK/Europe

So like I’ll repeat this is many times as I need. Almost zero audio products are made 100% in the US. Whether that’s raw materials for any components or even any machines/tools used in the production process it’s gonna result in new price increases somewhere along the chain. The idea that you’ll be able to avoid price increases by simply sticking with US companies is laughable. People keep saying “well schiit, audeze, dca, and JDS are American so I’m fine”. First off not everyone can afford audeze or DCA, and unless DCA gets all of their titanium domestic, and schiit gets their aluminum domestic, and magically JDS and Schiit get their AKM/ESS chips not from Japan and Canada then all of those are also going to go up in price. These tariffs will cause prices increases in literally every single industry. Nothing is made 100% in the US except like corn and even then I wouldn’t be shocked if we imported fertilizer or pesticides. Supply chains are global because that’s how the global trade system works. It can take years to move a supply chain domestic if the manufacturing for said supplies already exists let alone when those capabilities aren’t even there in the first place.