[PinkFloyd]

Has anybody else noticed a distinct shortage of AKG dealers in the UK? I was looking for a pair of K501's on the net and could only find 2 uk dealers who stocked them, both dealers were "out of stock" and I'm getting them on overnight delivery from the Arbiter group who are AKG's agent in the UK.

Armed with this information it's pretty easy to see why sennheiser HD600's are the most popular headphone. They are stocked by virtually every Hi-Fi dealer in the UK and can be bought at crazy prices like £90. How on earth can a dealer sell a pair of headphones retailing at £249 for £90, they must be on one hell of a mark up?

The AKG's, on the other hand are not stocked by every dealer and you are lucky if you get 10% off the retail price, let alone 260% off!

I think there is more to all this than meets the eye! Sennheisers globalisation is one thing but the dealers greed in stocking headphones they can make huge profits on is another. To think they are still making a profit on a pair of cans retailing at £249 when they sell them at £90 is nothing short of criminal... just how much are the HD600's really worth?

It's a sad day when dealers only stock products they can make a killing on, whatever happened to good old fashioned fair trading? I called 3 dealers today enquiring about AKG headphones:

Dealer one: "We don't stock AKG as we find them an inferior headphone to the Sennheiser range"

Dealer two: "We could order you a pair but invite you to listen to our sennheiser range, I think you'll prefer them"

Dealer Three: "everybody prefers sennheiser headphones you are the first person in a long time to enquire about AKG phones. Their professional headphones are ok but we have found sennheiser to be the most popular phones".

Erm... seems to me these "dealers" are getting a good deal from sennheiser and are reluctant to stock anything that will give them a lower profit margin.

Anyways, the K501's arrive tomorrow so I'll let my ears be the final judge and, believe me, if they sound good at the retail price of £129 I'll cry it out from the roof tops!

When I smell a rat, it normally turns out to be a rat....... I smell a big greedy sennheiser rat with a pair of headphones on...

Watch this space.

Pinkie

http://freespace.virgin.net/rock.grotto/index2.htm

 

[00940]

90£ for a pair of HD600

the best price I found in continental Europe is 230€.

 

[wallijonn]

Pinkie,

to get a good price on AKGs, like Grados, chances are you'd have to send over a ship load over to cover the costs. Senns and Sonys on the other hand have built up their distributors slowly over time. they can afford to send whole ship loads over at the same time. heck, i wouldn't be surprised if sony has their own ships and planes to transport their goods into foreign ports.

if akg and grado don't have distributors at the other end (who pay all the VATs and fill out all the legal forms, etc) then chances are that they will probably be hard to find items.

we just got the Mini-Cooper in America. And someone in the members area is looking for Smirnoff Peach snuapps (or something). so it isn't just headphones. it's everything else. i doubt that you have a sony distributor over there selling W2002, W1000, A1000, A900, et. al. We, like you have to get them straight out of Japan. And I'm trying to get Ruttles Beer from an Los Angeles distributor. Chances are you can't get Sedona Black Beer over there.

It's just the global economy at work.

I just ordered my DT880s from Jan in Germany.

Such is life.

But don't fault a company for sewing up their sector. It's just smart business practices at work. I doubt that they make all the headphone distributors not carry their competitor's products. such monopolies tend to work in much higher priced goods.

 

[muzikk]

http://www.proaudiosystems.co.uk/aca...Open_Back.html
K501 for £103 incl. shipping, don't know if they have them on stock but they do have beyers as well. HD600 for £90?, wow never saw that here in europe.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by 00940 90£ for a pair of HD600 the best price I found in continental Europe is 230€.

HD600's were £89.99 at richer sounds last year. Best sennheiser deal for UK punters at the moment is the HD580 at £94.90 from http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ and they include free next day delivery. I ordered a pair from Peter Tyson which arrived at 9:07am the following day.. didn't like the sound but at £94.90 including VAT and postage decided to keep them for casual listening. £106.00 off the RRP of £199.00, not bad!

I still think this globalisation is out of order and am on a mission..... "I name this ship AKG and all who float on her into the UK dealers shops"

Pinkie

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by muzikk http://www.proaudiosystems.co.uk/aca...Open_Back.html K501 for £103 incl. shipping, don't know if they have them on stock but they do have beyers as well. HD600 for £90?, wow never saw that here in europe.

Yes... those are V1 K501's without Varimotion drivers... I called Proaudio in bradford this morning and it was them who ordered the K501's "with" varimotion direct from arbiter group for me (for the same price). All in the cost was £103.40 plus £10 for business direct postage from arbiter to my home address... £113.40.

I'm happy enough paying £10 extra knowing the cans are coming direct from AKG's UK distributor and not from some old stock that's been kicking about for yonks.

Proaudio are an honest company to deal with and if they had sent me the K501's without "varimotion" I probably wouldn't have been any wiser. (come to think of it I probably would have noticed 5 minutes after they arrived taking an under the bonnet peek!)

Anyway... I've got a pair! My first ever phones way back in 1979 were AKG's and I've never managed to get a pair that sounded so good ever since... must admit, everything sounded better then but that's another time and place.

Pinkie

 

[muzikk]

Varimotion Drivers? are there different versions of AKG, or does it only apply for the K 501?

and are they visually different?

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by muzikk Varimotion Drivers? are there different versions of AKG, or does it only apply for the K 501? and are they visually different?

The Series includes three perfectly designed headphones. Each model is tuned for different musical styles.


AKG Acoustic's newly developed diaphragm technology Varimotion provides new dimensions for sound. A one world patent application has been submitted. The diaphragm's varying degree of thickness of the movement and the sound zones result in a quality of performance never heard before.




Designer-styled headphones for the demanding music lover. The AKG Varimotion System provides perfect spatial sound reproduction.

http://www.akg-acoustics.com/

According to AKG. It seems "Varimotion" is AKG's new baby.

Pinkie

 

[ooheadsoo]

I actually know exactly what it takes to become an official AKG distributor. I am considering becoming one if I ever get enough scratch to put aside.

It takes a $500 opening PO. That's all. Of course, you have to have the appropriate licenses and everything.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by ooheadsoo I actually know exactly what it takes to become an official AKG distributor. I am considering becoming one if I ever get enough scratch to put aside. It takes a $500 opening PO. That's all. Of course, you have to have the appropriate licenses and everything.

Interesting.

I may well become an authorised dealer then.

Pinkie

 

[Nisbeth]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd The AKG's, on the other hand are not stocked by every dealer and you are lucky if you get 10% off the retail price, let alone 260% off!

I think there would be very few dealers around if this was so. Paying people to buy things sounds like a very bad idea to me.....

(249 GBP before, 90 GBP now = app. a 64% discount)


/U.

 

[Nisbeth]

I think AKG's are hard to find in almost every country in Europe (except Austria where I got mine. Every shop in Vienna carries them

)
I think Sennheiser has been better at setting up an "intensive" distribution network, and probably their more diverse product range allows Sennheiser to gain access to more shops than AKG (Many (Ok, thats a relative expression) music shops in Denmark carries AKG, but usually only the closed variants). And I have to admit, that "the tube-lovers favourite brainclamp" (HD600) actually sounds very nice....

Boy am I blabbering now. I better be off to bed soon

/U.

 

[ooheadsoo]

Disclaimer: my post only refers to distributing in the US

YMMV for Europe!

 

[lini]

Strange things happen, as it seems. These British list prices for the HD580 & HD600 are way overblown. 199 and 249 quid? That must be a joke. Maybe they just rewrote the list prices in Euro or it's a mere marketing trick as with many loudspeakers over here.

And a K501-version without Varimotion drivers seems similarly strange, as this driver type was already introduced with the K400 and K500...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[divie23]

Cheapest price I have found is from www.gear4music.com - £96 inc. recorded delivery and VAT. Not bad huh. Will buy these shortly.