I don’t think you see my point. It’s not that people can’t afford it, but getting them at a reasonable price can actually be impossible (depending on the brand). The US brands in question are well regarded exatly because of their outstanding cost/performance ratio, but importing them into the EU completely takes that away and they can be unreasonable as long as there are other options that can match their quality at a lower price, and this thread is exactly for that, to discuss those other options if I’m not mistaken.
To me, it seems like the Fiio K5 Pro is the most reasonably priced, well reviewed amp in the budget category, and it comes with a DAC
Schiit EU is exactly one of those examples where it’s more expensive in Europe. The heresy, for example, costs $99 in America while it’s almost $150 over here ($147,72 to be precise). I’m not sure how taxes work in America so I don’t know what the actual amount would be that is withdrawn from your bank account when you make the purchase, but over here it’s about $150.
No they charge more to compensate for import duties and shipment I guess. Like I said I’m not hating on them because I see how it would be more expensive to sell the stuff over here if it’s assembled in America, however it does diminish the value proposition somewhat.
They have to pay import fees too, it has nothing to do with currency exchange. Unfortunately, their offer is only slightly better than ordering it directly from their US shop, not to mention the Heresy’s been out of stock for weeks or even months.
I don’t exactly know how other brands can manage to keep their costs low despite the import fees, but there are certainly some that do.
It’s fair to say I was out of the loop, but I know a lot of tech-savvy people who are interested in these sorts of things, and none of them even knew about it. I suspect that might have played a role in it’s premature closure. It doesn’t even seem like it was a genuine attempt, to be honest with you.
It did have a link on it’s main audiophile page to the EU section but the selection was about a quarter of what was available in the USA…plus quite a bit more expensive so that probably added to why they pulled it?.
The link doesn’t achieve anything in this case since they don’t have that many EU customers to begin with, relatively speaking. I don’t think they offer refunds to customers outside the US, for example, at least they didn’t in the past, and their offering can quickly lose it’s appeal once you realise how little they do to accomodate overseas customers. Simply redirecting already existing customers to a new service won’t acquire you new customers.
Schiit EU has almost nothing available anyways…tried to buy different things there and nothing was in stock, neither they could say to me when the products will be available again. Schiit UK distribution has more things in stock, even if the prices are again higher than in the US. The used marked in germany is okay, see schiit stacks and stuff from time to time (eBay-kleinanzeigen.de). Bought my schiitstack from there. For sure its always a gamble to buy used and from another countrY)…
because Drop did not tell anybody. They had a button in a drop down list and small EU flag next to the products available in EU. Also, the products were mostly audio and a lost of users on Drop are not interested in audio.
Well they did send a email to Drop customers about it and it was mentioned on site news, plus products had the flag.
E: Of course in Communities, there was this: https://drop.com/talk/22344/massdrop-testing-local-shipping-in-european-union
Few of our local Hifi-sites of course mentioned it, cause of fellow members noticed and mentioned it.
Of course they could have marketed it better.
If you where not a Drop customer and not so active, you might have missed the info.
Money probably was the problem and returns. It’s much cheaper for the company not to do a EU site.
EU people still order from drop IF they want something and IF it is available/allowed to be ordered.
i have been a Drop/Massdrop customer for 3 or 4 years now (bought some keycaps as my first order from them) and I live in the EU.
If they sent the notification to their users, most of their users are based in North America. Those users hardly care if Drop is available in EU too.
Word of mouth, few sites and forums is not enough anymore to increase their business.
Massdrop started with mechanical keyboards and they were lucky enough to be at the beginning of the explosion of interest in mechanical keyboards. That is how I found them, when their name was spreading like wildfire through the community.
I believe they tried to do the same in EU, with audio gear mostly, especially their own special models, like Sennheiser 6xx, or Meze 99 Noir.
But, in contrast to the mechanical keyboard community which proved to be such a success at the beginning of Massdrop, the audio one is still very much a niche inhabited by mostly more mature people who can keep impulse buying in check and prefer to listen to new gear before they buy.
One other thing, in EU, the customer protection laws are much more stringent than in the US, 2 year of warranty by law, higher taxes, worker protection laws, etc. All of these rules and regulations might have proven to much for a group buy / pre-order based company with so many products, like Massdrop.
I had an order for the shit Modi 3 and Magni 3+. It was in stock when I ordered. contacted them 2 weeks later because the products weren’t shipped yet. Turned out they were out of stock. Waited almost 3 months untill they eventually cancelled the order because of the pandemic.
So yes, there is Shitt EU, if you’re willing to wait a long while
I ordered a Liquid spark from Monoprice UK (I’m from belgium) and took the risk with import fees. Turns out, when the price is below €150 for audio gear, you don’t have any fees (please don’t quote me on this). So, I only payed ±€115 for the liquid spark
It was their last one in stock, so lucky me I guess. They did however send me the wrong plug (EU vs UK) but I had a spare cable that fit so not a big issue.
I’m just playing arround with them now and trying to get my hands on some FLAC files, (I should definitely have done this when I was waiting for shipments).
If anyone has a nice playlist that is super nice to test your first headphone + dac/amp combo with, that would be nice
thank you all for the advice, a whole new world is opening up to me
wonder why that was?
