What EU brands do we even have lol. Ifi Audio, Sennheiser and Meze?
I tried all the demo units the store had.
Focal/naim is here, too.
I get you tried all the products in the store, but it’s not the only store in EU, and to be fair I think the choice of iems in physical stores is way worse than the headphone ones.
I see your point, but that’s only valid if you’re buying in USD. If you go into amazon, you gonna pay more.
In my country, if I pay, let’s say, 100USD, the customs will take me around 30% * 100 usd, in euros (30€). So in total, I’ll pay 80+30=110 Euros.
If I buy on Amazon DE/ES in Euros, like I did my BTR5 or FD5 etc, I paid more in Euros than it worths in dollars (130€ and 330€ if I recall that right).
EU is awsome if you don’t pay the taxes, just the USD value, that I agree 
That was why Aliexpress was so worth it. I bought my Teas there, took them 7 work days to get me, but I paid 220€ 
2 Likes
Focal, Hyland, Vioelectric, Beyerdynamic, Vision ear…
1 Like
Focal and VE are all very expensive brands. Never heard about Hyland nor Vioelectric before.
I haven’t tried half of these…
I get most my gear second hand anyway … cost is relative
.you can grab the Focal Elegia (a closed back set of cans) for the price of a nice iem, tips and cable. Also Focal stuff is suuuuper clean in build and sound …very pleasing aesthetically…the Elex too is a reasonable price to performance open back.
Hyland is a single dude I’m UK making custom wood cans
Vioelectric/Lakepeople makes high end amps and is pretty renowned german Fried Reim designs.
Yeah, thats very expensive.
Just that these discounts don’t apply for European customers. We always end up bending over
1 Like
That as well (but even the discounted price is expensive).
2 Likes
New…and again I buy most my gear 2nd hand… also dual nationality US and Spain so all the possibilities are open😜
Thats the US. Those discounts arent in the EU.
I feel you on the import tax…that and shipping blows goats
Yes…addressed in the second part…but also there are forwarding services that permit you to get stuff and pay US rates
If I could get Adorama to ship to Portugal… Need that Etymotic prices man…
Still have to pay vat. which is 25% here in Sweden. So that 400 usd elegia, is now 500 + shipping from US to sweden, probably 550-600 usd.
1 Like
Or people that go to visit family that may be willing to stash a thing or two in their checked bag if you ask nicely.
Yea Adorama have crazy ‘email price’ for the same products, for example:
yep
VS
If someone buys an item for you, then forwards it without it being comercial, do you still pay any type of VAT? Even if no money was involved (that they know of)?
Depends on country tax code and wording of shipping declaration…sometimes you can slip by declaring as gift or merchandise repair but Spanish Customs are…rigorous…always safe by the book I’ve found if ordering…otherwise I stick up on everything when stateside