[mercid]

Damn!

I just purchased a maxed META 42 from JMT and cant wait to get it. I was considering the Mini meta for my portable needs but with the new price and the fact i can no longer ask him questions on head-fi has cut the legs right off of that thought. Fix-Up may be a good at whatever he does but one thing is for sure, he needs to take a few class's in business, and or P.R. Its quite sad, really.

 

[williamgoody]

Eric, another point to be bought up based on what you said; He's recently had his little "confrontation" (for lack of a better word) with Jude over whether his threads were "ads" or not. To me that was a very confused issue, neither right or wrong and certainly not cut and dry.
To raise his prices after all that to me is mind boggling.

 

[Voodoochile]

Just maybe... the initial price was due to poor planning on the part of Fixup? I can imagine by the 10th amp, he may have been thinking "Why, oh why did I say I would do this for $XX?"

Or not- only Fixup knows for sure. I think that the current price isn't unreasonable, but it does suck that it started out so much lower, then jumped so much.

If I was in that position, and getting 'too many orders' (for whatever reason) I think I'd just say that I was booked out for however long, as it seems other DIYFSE guys do.

Unfortunate for both potential customers and Fixup. The exact inverse of a win-win situation!

 

[LTUCCI1924]

HI ALL: I think that when fixup was an active member he tried to keep his prices low as a friend to members and now that he is no longer posting here he might feel that he needs to get the true worth for his amps. This is no reflection on any moderators for in my book they do no wrong. Members can still keep in touch with him through his web site and send any questions to him by e-mail and he replays very fast. I have talked to fixup on the phone and find him to be very polite and concerned that I the customer am very happy with my order.

 

[Watchdog]

I wasn't really planning on buying a portable headphone amp but then I figured I could get the mini for $80 so I was going to get it.

I hesitated and now at $125 I think I'm back to I won't be buying a portable amp.

In high school I built an amp and equalizer from scratch i.e. bent the aluminum to build the case, punched all the holes, soldered all the parts onto the board, etc....... though we used the design provided by our teacher. Hmmm come to think of it that took quite a bit of time, maybe I'll get an airhead or TA instead.

For $80 I would have bought Fixup's mini, but if it's the same price as the Airhead, well Headroom provides a financial contribution to this forum and Fixup does not so I'll support one of our forum sponsors.

Maybe I'll send my Little for an upgrade while I'm at it

 

[williamgoody]

The only problem I see with that Lou is that he left on his own, he wasn't booted out. And since we could still get in touch with him and do business with him, I don't think he not posting here is a good reason for the price hike.
I'm sure he's a nice guy and all. Whatever he does with his business is his business. We're all just trying to figure out the logic behind it (if any).

 

[LTUCCI1924]

Hey BILL how are you great I hope. Its good to read your post. If you tried to figure out why I do stuff on logic I think you would be at a loss. You know me BILL I just do stuff with out any logic involved. If we hook up again BILL you will hear how good these amps really are. And when you see how small they are well I said wow. Now I know this might sound crazy but I paid 80.00 for the mini and super mini and if fixup asked me in a nice way to pay and make up the money to 125.00 I think I would do it. Of course this ant gonna happen its just how well I think these amps are. Of course when I use my 580s I use my Max Out META42 but when I use my koss-35 or portapro for portability there is nothing like the mini. The other portable amp I had was 165.00 at the time and now 200.00 with a gain of 2 or 3 and had and out put of 300 m/w and was nowhere near the class of the super mini that has a gain of + 10 and puts out 450 m/w the mini with a gain of + 10 puts out 1000 m/w per channel. wow
PS
These little amps can run my 580s but I need to use my META42 at some time or another and the META as you know sounds great.

 

[FCJ]

Quote:

Originally posted by williamgoody Whatever he does with his business is his business. We're all just trying to figure out the logic behind it (if any).

I'm not sure there was logic behind the price change. Think of any other product you've ever bought that becomes wildly popular and supply lags demand. Has price ever doubled? Somewhat higher, yes, but not double (at least not within the span of a month). It's not that the decision to double price is right or wrong--my guess is that the price for the Mini has been a "guess" all this while.

And what will happen next? What appears to have happened already. People who would have jumped at the amp for $60-$80 will not touch it for $125. Demand will fall, and supply will be just enough to meet that demand. What happens after that is anyone's guess, by I don't see this as the end to the price changes.

Let's assume that all orders made at $60-80 have been met. If there are no orders at $125, than the decision is to: (1) leave the business; (2) reduce price to some level that generates orders (and turns a profit, I suspect).

Given everyone's comment that the amp is not worth $125 (I would have not ordered it at that price--I admit the low price was the driving factor in my order), I don't think that the price of the amp will be going much higher. My guess is that it will come down once more.

Ultimately: (1) bad pr to double prices over a short period of time; (2) pricing to date has been driven more by guesswork than by "crunching the numbers."

 

[williamgoody]

Well Lou, I don't doubt that the amp may be worth the $125, but it's how it got to that plateau that is the question to people. Bottom line as always though is if you enjoy it and it suits your needs, that's all that really matters.

And I'll be taking you up on that Lou. I'll be back in Philly soon, probably before the holidays.

Frank, I totally agree with you.

 

[Robster1958]

well....i ordered the super mini at $80..(actually $75 without volume control) about 2 weeks ago. lead time was 2-3 days at that time. anyhow, i have not received it yet.

anyone else in this position?

i have to admit...this whole thing is bizarre. for me, the tiny size, long battery life AND low price made me order the super-mini as my very first headphone amp. i have recently got Ety 4P's, so $75 was all i really wanted to spend at this time.

yes it DID seem like an excellent deal based on reviews, specs, and the pix. at $125, i would not have bought it. so maybe this is exactly what happens, and the price comes down again.

however, the cost to FixUp's reputation will take some time to rebuild. for example, i ordered just after the $20 increase, but at least i was getting better components. now i hope i actually do get the better components. because the truth is...for someone to unilateraly raise the price so much so fast...makes me wonder just how good a guy he is. like they say, reputations are built over years, but destroyed in a day.

 

[pigmode]

Ropster,
Hey I dig that nic.

No use speculating like that in full view of the world. You're conducting a transaction with him right? You should first go directly to him with any of your questions. I notice he offers a lot of other services so perhaps it behooves him to conduct business in a proper fashion, don't you think?

I guess we're just going to have to adjust to this new model for diy purchases. Things are different now, and I'm really grateful for those pioneering diy-builders who with their generosity, helped make this such a great place to hang out.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Though we can only speculate at Fixup's reasoning for the price jump, we can cite another similar example for a possible alternate take on the same issue.

tangent got swamped with orders for the META42. What did he do? He stopped taking orders until he could catch up. So did eric343.

Granted, fixup has a website that you can order from and he obviously has interested buyers that likely have never heard of head-fi. To them, the mini amp may well still represent an excellent value. But his own words must be evaluated in the case of the first price hike, and must be searched for justification for the second. Jude seems to interpret his words opposite of how I do, fixup seems to me to be contradicting himself.

I admire anyone who is willing to use their own two hands to build useful products for our use. But no matter how much we admire anyone's skill or knowledge, they still must be held accountable for their actions. I would like to know the justification for the massive price hike. Until fixup speaks up, we won't know, and until then we can only speculate.

 

[poorimpulsectrl]

Ah, the time tested tradition of message board drama. Unsubstantiated speculation on motives, simplistic explanations, damning accusations. Irrelevant issues in the grand scheme of things made to seem like they matter so much more. And of course the token chin stroking jagoff coming in late in the thread to self righteously/annoyingly tell everyone how silly they're being

I don't see what the problem is here. Raising the price - for whatever reason - to a level that incites disdain from the consumer or community is a self policing move. Manufacturer pays for their decision when consumers won't pay. And it's not as if there aren't alternatives.

 

[kelly]

jpegl
I found your contribution to this thread worthless and argumentative. Thanks!

Everyone else:
Just to be sure I'm clear here. I made absolute NO judgment on the absolute value of the FixUp's product. Whether it is or isn't worth any given price, for me, would have to do with performance--not with formulas, costs, labor, etc. I'm only a consumer and that is my perogative. Having never heard the amp, I would not make the ridiculous attempt of trying to assert such a judgment on it.

I absolutely do believe an individual's time is worthy of payment. If somehow my prior posts indicated to you that I believed otherwise, I assure you that it was a misread of my intent. Labor costs and even profit should absolutely be considered when you're an entrepreneur. I would never fault any of you for that.

I don't actually care what FixUp charges for any of his products. If I were to do business with him, my decision would be based on how the products performed versus similarly priced products with similar features or traits including the small footprint, etc. Again, whether it's worth his new price or not is not something I'm capable of judging.

My grievances were ONLY against the blatant exploitation of users on this forum recommending his product based on a good price/performance ratio only 2 weeks ago when it was less than half the price it is today. These recommendations are the reason why he has such a long line of customers. As it has been pointed out, FixUp used this very forum tostate himself that his product was a good price/performance ratio based on the previous price. He stated one price, gathered the publicity and the customers, then raised the price. Is he within his legal write? Yes, absolutely. I'm not planning legal action. I'm just not going to buy from him.

This forum is the best place to discuss this sort of thing. If you don't like it, don't discuss it. People like jpelg should really question whether they want to participate in a thread before posting rather than complaining about the subject matter itself. It's flame bait at best.

 

[purk]

Guys,
I feel bad for starting this thread. I'm not in anyway trying to destroy Fixup's reputation. All I'm trying to say is, he is not doing the way he was saying.

Quote:

Here's a paragraph by Fixup that I've quoted before: quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ....I can eat the hottest food that you can never even touch. I designed my super mini, only because I could no longer let people be ripped off by those stuff that are not even close. As you mentioned, nobody else can do it yet and I could easily sell my super mini for $$$. I raised the price from $60 to $80 only once, only try to reduce flooding orders. As you can see, most members here still consider $80 is still a very good deal for such a killer amp. I have the monopoly, but I still keep the price so low. Why? I'm a nice guy, a cowboy. It is that simple. Think about it....

Maybe 125 dollars for Fixup is still reasonable and a good deal to him.