[Chozart]

  I dunno how true that is. have you guys ever looked at the pricing for their accessories? looks pretty marked up to me. i see their ads on random audiophile websites too, so they have an advertising budget.
 
The DAC marketplace in general seems marked up to ridiculously insane levels to me.

 
I don't think their accessories are market up at all. Do note that the PYST cables aren't your standard cables that you can buy at any given electronics store. The RCA plugs on mine are actually Straight Wire plugs, which is a well known audio cable manufacturer. And a company having an advertisement budget does not mean they mark their stuff up. However, like any cost incurred for making and selling a product, it will be calculated into the price (note: we're not talking full page ads in the NYT or Superbowl ads here... it's banner ads on specific websites. Nothing that costs that much).

 

[money4me247]

  What's an acceptable markup on accessories to you? Make sure to figure in that you have to include the costs of  paying light bills, rent, insurance, paying someone to pull the item and ship it, customer service, how many you have to buy in bulk and how long they may sit on the shelf, the true costs of having money invested in inventory, etc.... This is just for carrying inventory bought from a wholesaler. If you have a product with R&D, the costs go up considerably.
 
I remember many years ago when working for an audio company that a guy wanted to buy a replacement remote for his 5 yr old CD player that was out of production. The price was $30 plus shipping. (pretty cheap for a remote) but he was offended because in his mind he thought there were less than $10 in parts and $30 was "price gouging him" . Let alone that it's not uncommon for a part like that to be discontinued because of the age. The guy didn't have a clue as to what it cost to make something like this available to him.
 
I'm not picking on you, but most people only learn the true cost of doing business, when they've actually had to do the math when actually operating a business.

 
lol. i'm not saying that aren't offering a 'good' price for their business size, and sure I understand that they are running a business & need to profit. i'm just saying I just don't think that their profit margins are any smaller than other companies or anything special. you can just find those accessories much cheaper elsewhere. You can buy those tubes from a tube dealer direct for $3/each, cables can be found from cable companies sub-$10, and wall chargers can be found <$7. The larger companies that bulk purchase components or specialize in wholesale can always out-price the smaller company for the same profit margins. For standardized accessories, it makes a lot more sense for the consumer to just buy direct... rather than pay for an audio company's utilities/rent & their extra costs of getting the item from the OEM. 
 
the guy from your example is right to walk. he could easily find that product cheaper online nowadays. brick-n-motor stores charge a lot more for the same thing for the exact reason you described. have to pay rent & utilities. Considering you can get a cd player for less than $100 nowadays, 1/3 of that price for a simple remote just doesn't make sense to a consumer. the fact that your example store can't offer a more competitive price means that you shouldn't be stocking that item.
 
schiit's strength/niche is pricing their audiophile equipment at a more affordable price compared to major brands, but I doubt that they are taking a a major hit in profit. they price what they think people will pay & cannot afford to price as high as more established brands. all companies say they are giving you the best price for amazing equipment, but really pricing is more determined by economics... supply & demand. audiophile items just get marked up a lot more, because audiophile consumers are willing to pay more.
 
edit: i don't think there is anything wrong with schiit's pricing & I agree that their mark-ups are probably reasonable. i'm just saying that they are just another company, trying to make profit. i would always do research on your options before just buying.

 

[crazychile]

   
I don't think their accessories are market up at all. Do note that the PYST cables aren't your standard cables that you can buy at any given electronics store. The RCA plugs on mine are actually Straight Wire plugs, which is a well known audio cable manufacturer. And a company having an advertisement budget does not mean they mark their stuff up. However, like any cost incurred for making and selling a product, it will be calculated into the price (note: we're not talking full page ads in the NYT or Superbowl ads here... it's banner ads on specific websites. Nothing that costs that much).

I completely agree. I have a pair of the PYST cables also and to purchase the RCA's/cable with shipping to DIY an identical pair could easily cost close or even exceed the amount Schiit charges for those. And then you'd have your labor time on top of that to assemble them.
 
Assuming 4 Straight Wire RCA's at $3 ea. plus $6 shipping = $18
Cable (assuming buying from a different supplier) is $2 ft (qty 1) plus $6 shipping = $8
18+8= $26 plus your cost of solder vs. $20 plus $6 shipping from Schiit for the PYST.....I'll take the PYSTs.

 

[ThurstonX]

  I completely agree. I have a pair of the PYST cables also and to purchase the RCA's/cable with shipping to DIY an identical pair could easily cost close or even exceed the amount Schiit charges for those. And then you'd have your labor time on top of that to assemble them.
 
Assuming 4 Straight Wire RCA's at $3 ea. plus $6 shipping = $18
Cable (assuming buying from a different supplier) is $2 ft (qty 1) plus $6 shipping = $8
18+8= $26 plus your cost of solder vs. $20 plus $6 shipping from Schiit for the PYST.....I'll take the PYSTs.

 
Agree on the DIY point, as the RCAs were (to me) surprisingly expensive.  Unless you're buying a lot of stuff for DIY projects to ameliorate the shipping costs per item, building just a pair of 7" cables will put you in PYST territory.  I have two pairs of PYSTs.  The first was defective, and Schiit shipped a new pair immediately once I detailed the testing I did.  I did repair the first, once I got a soldering station, and made my own, but that was because I had the cable and wanted more experience.  So yeah, $20 may seem steep for a pair of really short cables, but good luck finding nice, short cables like that.  I searched high and low, and ended up right back at Schiit, where they proved their excellent customer service.

 

[Draygonn]

good luck finding nice, short cables like that.

Exactly. PYST meet the needs of a Schiit Stack.

 

[crazychile]

   
lol. i'm not saying that aren't offering a 'good' price for their business size, and sure I understand that they are running a business & need to profit. i'm just saying I just don't think that their profit margins are any smaller than other companies or anything special. you can just find those accessories much cheaper elsewhere. You can buy those tubes from a tube dealer direct for $3/each, cables can be found from cable companies sub-$10, and wall chargers can be found <$7. The larger companies that bulk purchase components or specialize in wholesale can always out-price the smaller company for the same profit margins. For standardized accessories, it makes a lot more sense for the consumer to just buy direct... rather than pay for an audio company's utilities/rent & their extra costs of getting the item from the OEM. 
 
the guy from your example is right to walk. he could easily find that product cheaper online nowadays. brick-n-motor stores charge a lot more for the same thing for the exact reason you described. have to pay rent & utilities. Considering you can get a cd player for less than $100 nowadays, 1/3 of that price for a simple remote just doesn't make sense to a consumer. the fact that your example store can't offer a more competitive price means that you shouldn't be stocking that item.
 
schiit's strength/niche is pricing their audiophile equipment at a more affordable price compared to major brands, but I doubt that they are taking a a major hit in profit. they price what they think people will pay & cannot afford to price as high as more established brands. all companies say they are giving you the best price for amazing equipment, but really pricing is more determined by economics... supply & demand. audiophile items just get marked up a lot more, because audiophile consumers are willing to pay more.
 
edit: i don't think there is anything wrong with schiit's pricing & I agree that their mark-ups are probably reasonable. i'm just saying that they are just another company, trying to make profit. i would always do research on your options before just buying.

Schiits profit margins probably aren't lower than other audio companies. I wouldn't expect them to be lower. The savings to the consumer comes from cutting out a dealer network, not by running their business on lower margins. My fault for misunderstanding you there.
 
As for tubes, I haven't seen them for $3 each, but admittedly you could find them for less than $10. But they probably wouldn't be matched and you have to have the equipment for that and pay someone to do it. It's a value added markup that some people care about, others don't. I don't think $20 for a matched pair of tubes is out of line at all.
 
In the example with the guy and the remote....It wasn't from a retail source but from the manufacturer of the CD Player. The CD Player was $700 and the remote was the direct OEM replacement, not an all-in-one learning remote or something like that. I one inquired about buying a replacement remote for a cheap (<$250) A/V receiver I owned. The manufacturers parts department quoted me $150 for it. I thought that was expensive, but typical. So a $30 remote on a $700 CD player is pretty cheap.
 
Audiophile products do tend to be expensive. Part of that is because they are sold in lower quantities - due to a smaller market, than mass market stuff. Having worked in the industry, I've seen cases where the designer charges a high price because they think it compares to other products at a similar high price, even if it doesn't have a high cost or isn't really anything groundbreaking. This wouldn't be my approach but it happens.
 
Take a look at the Pro Audio Market vs. the High End Audio market for a second. Crown amps sells more product than High End Brand X. I'm not claiming that the products are comparable but Crown distributes their R&D costs over a high volume of sales, while High End Brand X would be lucky to sell a hundred units of some models. So High End Brand X has to charge a premium for it to stay in business. (And many of them don't stay in business). I think you'd be surprised at the number of components on Stereophiles Recommended lists that never sell more than a few hundred units. I'm not even talking about flagship models that cost crazy $$$, but may only cost a couple thousand or so. Of course there are exceptions, but successful High End products are often sold in the hundreds, not tens of thousands.

 

[NzAudezey]

Just as a side note, I ordered the USB gen 2 card for my gungnir directly from schiit with expensive shipping as I'm in NZ it arrived in good time and I installed it with out issue ( those dam led lights are tricky) yet 2 days later I had an email from schiit with a formal appologie as they had sent the product on the wrong priority and it took and extra day or 2 ( i didn't even notice) they then refunded me the full amount of the shipping.( about 60us)

To me that speaks volumes that an error was made and they corrected it with out having to be asked or required to. A+ for the service and the integrity of the company and they have definitely won my business

 

[CrazyNikel]

I just received my Schiit MODI opti dac and I received the wrong power plug! I ordered a USA and instead got a EU plug. Do you guys know how Schiits policy handles this? I surely wont have to ship the entire product back right? Ive already contacted Schiit directly...Such sad, much disappointment, was so looking forward to listening to my complete audio setup...not now.

 

[madwolfa]

  I just received my Schiit MODI opti dac and I received the wrong power plug! I ordered a USA and instead got a EU plug. Do you guys know how Schiits policy handles this? I surely wont have to ship the entire product back right? Ive already contacted Schiit directly...Such sad, much disappointment, was so looking forward to listening to my complete audio setup...not now.

 
I'm sure they will get to you and handle the exchange ASAP...
 
PS: I guess they'd just need to send you a US wallwart.

 

[Billheiser]

  I just received my Schiit MODI opti dac and I received the wrong power plug! I ordered a USA and instead got a EU plug. Do you guys know how Schiits policy handles this? I surely wont have to ship the entire product back right? Ive already contacted Schiit directly...Such sad, much disappointment, was so looking forward to listening to my complete audio setup...not now.

If you have a wall wart that provides 16 volts AC, you can use that until Schitt corrects the mistake.  However, make sure what you use is 16 VAC, and NOT DC, which is more common among wall wart power supplies.

 

[Chozart]

Knowing them, I'd recon they'll send out the correct wall wart the moment they receive your e-mail. Worst case, they'll have you send back the incorrect wall wart, but I don't think they'll even require that before sending you the correct (USA) wall wart.
 
Yes, they're a business. And their goal of course is profit. But unlike some other businesses out here, they realize that a loyal customer base is key to a profitable business.

 

[CrazyNikel]

I love you guys. Made me feel better :3
 
 
Regardless, I love the Schiit products. And have had no issues with my Vali amp, my Magni is OTW. Its just ironic to me cause Ive been waiting longest for the dac and it came with the wrong plug ahaha. Well I went ahead and ordered an extra wall-wort just in case. I mean, hell its 10 bucks.
 
@Billheiser I actually almost just tried a DC 12v I had. But figured I would just wait. I'm a very impatient guy but sometimes schiit happens.

 

[ThurstonX]

  I love you guys. Made me feel better :3
 
 
Regardless, I love the Schiit products. And have had no issues with my Vali amp, my Magni is OTW. Its just ironic to me cause Ive been waiting longest for the dac and it came with the wrong plug ahaha. Well I went ahead and ordered an extra wall-wort just in case. I mean, hell its 10 bucks.
 
@Billheiser I actually almost just tried a DC 12v I had. But figured I would just wait. I'm a very impatient guy but sometimes schiit happens.

 
That's a bummer, but they'll make it right.  Just look at how they handled NZAudezey's shipping issue, which wasn't even an issue to him.  Also, when they sent me new PYST cables to replace the defective pair, they didn't ask for the original pair.

 

[CrazyNikel]

   
That's a bummer, but they'll make it right.  Just look at how they handled NZAudezey's shipping issue, which wasn't even an issue to him.  Also, when they sent me new PYST cables to replace the defective pair, they didn't ask for the original pair.

They already got back to me and have shipped 1 replacement via USPS priority. Good guys, its certainly an easy mistake to make as I imagine the plugs are already packaged and when they ship, they probably verify via label. I need to /equip better patience lol.

 

[Chozart]

Glad to hear that the famous Schiit customer service came through as expected. Have fun, since this is great gear!